A few weeks ago, a bunch of us counselors went to
Southwestern College for a mini conference and field trip to their various satellite sites. This is the sun dial in the new building that houses their music and telecom department. It was about 10 someting in the morning. Don't ask my how to read this, but I couldn't figure out the time from looking at this.
I'd gone on this field trip before a few years ago. There's more now than before. Their music/telecom building is state of the art. According to their profs, industry folks from LA drool over their equipment. This is one of the labs where students can edit tv and radio shows. There was also a room with a green screen that we got to see.
My favorite part of the tour was hearing
James Henry speak. Last time we saw him, he had dreadlocks down to his waist. He's a Grammy winning musician who's worked with Prince, Heavy D, and Public Enemy among others. As a young teenager, he toured with Little Richard. He's very outspoken and passionate about what he does. This was a special room that was built to the specifications of this Yamaha grand piano. The piano was in "off" mode so you couldn't hear it if you struck any of the keys. The wooden slats are meant to absorb the sound in the room.
This is the same room...J. Henry said that there are no two parallel surfaces in here. Everything was angled like crazy. The walls themselves were fifteen feet thick and had a special covering to absorb sound as well.
See that? It's called a
binaural microphone. It's shaped like a human head, complete with a nose. It cost thousands of dollars and there are only 2 in San Diego. They're pretty expensive...
Close up of the binaural microphone head:
He also showed us this studio with an overhead screen of the sound board. Students in the commercial music program can go in here and mix their pieces professionally. Like the piano room next to it, this costs thousands of dollars to build to specification.
After the brief tour of the facilities at Southwestern College, we took the bus and went down to their newest off site campus at Otay Mesa. This is way way out on the 905 past Brown Field. Two years ago, it was just dirt. Now there are beautiful new buildings with a great EMT, Nursing and Fire Science program. The picture below doesn't show that off course. It's the caterer for our lunch from La Finca d'Adobe.
In one of the nursing program rooms, there was a simulated hospital setting. One side had two mannequins. This was one of them. It looked pretty freaky. They can run temperatures among other things. One of them (not in the room) could even give birth! Whoa! Give birth? I wish I could have seen that mannequin instead. This one looked like a female version of Iron Maiden's mascot
Eddie.
Here's the other lovely mannequin...
View from the second floor of the nursing building:
Students in those program have it pretty good, although there is about a year or more of a wait to get into the nursing program. We saw a paramedic truck in one of the classrooms. One of the students recognized my co-worker because she was his counselor. Anyhow, it was finally lunchtime! It was catered by
La Finca d'Adobe, which I blogged about back in March.
You had your rice, beans, salsa, and tortillas. The main protein was chicken (no carne asada here). That track suited arm, by the way, was not me. You wouldn't catch me wearing one of those even if you paid me. I have standards when it comes to fashion.
My (first) plate. Yes, I had seconds! I ended up putting everything in the tortillas...
Afterwards, we went to the San Ysidro site where we met the director and he talked about it's programs. It was also a bit of a sombre feeling being on the same exact location where the
Mcdonald's Massacre occurred back in 1984. I'll never forget that day, hearing it on the news. One of the girls killed was the older sister of one of my classmates.
I'd gone on this field trip before a few years ago. There's more now than before. Their music/telecom building is state of the art. According to their profs, industry folks from LA drool over their equipment. This is one of the labs where students can edit tv and radio shows. There was also a room with a green screen that we got to see.
My favorite part of the tour was hearing James Henry speak. Last time we saw him, he had dreadlocks down to his waist. He's a Grammy winning musician who's worked with Prince, Heavy D, and Public Enemy among others. As a young teenager, he toured with Little Richard. He's very outspoken and passionate about what he does. This was a special room that was built to the specifications of this Yamaha grand piano. The piano was in "off" mode so you couldn't hear it if you struck any of the keys. The wooden slats are meant to absorb the sound in the room.
This is the same room...J. Henry said that there are no two parallel surfaces in here. Everything was angled like crazy. The walls themselves were fifteen feet thick and had a special covering to absorb sound as well.
See that? It's called a binaural microphone. It's shaped like a human head, complete with a nose. It cost thousands of dollars and there are only 2 in San Diego. They're pretty expensive...
Close up of the binaural microphone head:
He also showed us this studio with an overhead screen of the sound board. Students in the commercial music program can go in here and mix their pieces professionally. Like the piano room next to it, this costs thousands of dollars to build to specification.
After the brief tour of the facilities at Southwestern College, we took the bus and went down to their newest off site campus at Otay Mesa. This is way way out on the 905 past Brown Field. Two years ago, it was just dirt. Now there are beautiful new buildings with a great EMT, Nursing and Fire Science program. The picture below doesn't show that off course. It's the caterer for our lunch from La Finca d'Adobe.
In one of the nursing program rooms, there was a simulated hospital setting. One side had two mannequins. This was one of them. It looked pretty freaky. They can run temperatures among other things. One of them (not in the room) could even give birth! Whoa! Give birth? I wish I could have seen that mannequin instead. This one looked like a female version of Iron Maiden's mascot Eddie.
Here's the other lovely mannequin...
View from the second floor of the nursing building:
Students in those program have it pretty good, although there is about a year or more of a wait to get into the nursing program. We saw a paramedic truck in one of the classrooms. One of the students recognized my co-worker because she was his counselor. Anyhow, it was finally lunchtime! It was catered by La Finca d'Adobe, which I blogged about back in March.
You had your rice, beans, salsa, and tortillas. The main protein was chicken (no carne asada here). That track suited arm, by the way, was not me. You wouldn't catch me wearing one of those even if you paid me. I have standards when it comes to fashion.
My (first) plate. Yes, I had seconds! I ended up putting everything in the tortillas...
Afterwards, we went to the San Ysidro site where we met the director and he talked about it's programs. It was also a bit of a sombre feeling being on the same exact location where the Mcdonald's Massacre occurred back in 1984. I'll never forget that day, hearing it on the news. One of the girls killed was the older sister of one of my classmates. 
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