Encina Update (groups/reunions/73/lynsey paulo/tom duhain/fame/michael brown/education/filezone/onebox/store/whats new) Date:Thu, 15 Jul 1999 10:34:01 -0700 ENCINA ALUMNI, If you wish to receive the Encina Update in the future, please read this update and subscribe to the encinaupdate mailing list. GROUPS As I mentioned last week, I've created groups for each Encina class year on egroups.com. In it's basic form, egroups provides a mailing list. For example, email sent to encina1973@egroups.com will be automatically distributed to all the members of the group encina1973. As manager of all the Encina groups, I set up the groups with the following policies: 1. Anyone may join a group (as opposed to my having to approve members) 2. Only members can post to the group (as opposed to non-members) 3. Messages are distributed directly to the group (as opposed to being approved first by manager) 4. Messages can be read on the web by anyone (as opposed to just members) 5. The group has a member directory that its members can see (as opposed to hiding the directory) 6. Replies to messages are sent to the entire group (as opposed to just the sender) Although I am the manager of all the Encina groups, since I am not approving members or messages, the Encina groups are "unmoderated" mailing lists where any member can send a message to all the members of the group. Note that you must be a member to send a message to a group. If you send a message from a different email address than you subscribed, from egroups will reject your message. I've added a form to each class directory and homepage which allows you to easily subscribe to your class mailing list. I've also sent invitations to all of the classes inviting them to join their class group/mailing list. I hope you will join your class mailing list. I think this will be a boon to class communication in the future. Here are some of the things your class group can do: Group email distribution lets everyone in your class share news with everyone else! Group Photo Album allows your class to share pictures with classmates near and far Group chat; lets you all talk at once without the conference call bills The polling function makes it easy to see everyone's availability for the next class get together You can have your class calendar email everyone a reminder and directions automatically The class groups should be good for those classes having reunions this year. If you wanted to have an online discussion, you could arrange for interested parties to be online at a particular time and have a virtual conference via chat, where you could discuss ideas for the reunion. EGROUP REGISTRATION If you subscribed by sending a blank email to egroups, please follow up by going to www.egroups.com and registering so that your name will show up on your class group. Otherwise, when people look at the membership directory for your group, all they will see is your email address and they won't know who you are. I looked at several class groups and about half the members have only their email address displayed. Note that egroups is free and it doesn't cost anything to register. ENCINA UPDATE GROUP I've also created a separate encinaupdate group. I WILL USE THE ENCINAUPDATE GROUP TO DISTRIBUTE THIS WEEKLY ENCINA UPDATE STARTING NEXT WEEK. As a test I am also sending this update to the Encina class groups this week so you will receive this message twice if you have already signed up for your class mailing list. Once directly and once via egroups. If you wish to continue receiving the Encina Update newsletter please subscribe by sending a blank email to encinaupdate-subscribe@egroups.com I've also added forms to the Encina website which allow you to subscribe to the Encina Update mailing list. Why don't I just send the Encina Update to all the class groups you ask? Well, some alumni have written and asked to be removed from the Encina mailing list because they are not interested in general Encina news, just news about their class year. Having a separate Encina Update mailing list allows people can subscribe to their class group but not the encinaupdate group. The purpose of the class mailing lists is for class communications. ENCINA STAFF GROUP I've created an encinastaff group to foster communication between Encina teachers and staff. Such a group would be ideal for organizing something like a reunion for Encina teachers and staff. Please subscribe by sending a blank email to encinastaff-subscribe@egroups.com ENCINA PARENTS GROUP I've created an encinaparents group to foster communication between the parents of Encina alumni. Please subscribe by sending a blank email to encinaparents-subscribe@egroups.com REUNIONS The first reunion is only five weeks away! If you have siblings or friends who might not know about their class reunions, please pass along this information. The classes which plan to have reunions this year are: 1964 1969 Saturday, August 21, 1999 at Ancil Hoffman Park Alan Dankman (adankman@worldnet.att.net) 1973 Mini-reunion: Rett Smart (irsmart@ix.netcom.com) 1974 Saturday, Sept 25, 1999 at Sacramento Red Lion Inn Bob Goosmann (Magusbob@hotmail.com) 1979 Saturday, Sept 25, 1999 at Hilton off Arden Way Laura Graff Allred (pacwest@foothill.net) Great Reunions: info@greatreunions.com 1984 1989 Saturday, August 28, 1999 at Howe Park Center Janice Barnes (jabarnes@dttus.com) 1994 Candy Mleczko (candym229@hotmail.com) CLASS OF 1973 Rett Smart is trying to organize a class of 73 mini reunion on August 21st. This will be a casual get together. However, due to lack of interest and responses, Rett is going to cancel the August mini reunion if he doesn't hear from more people by July 21st. So if you are interested, please contact Rett at irsmart@ix.netcom.com LYNSEY PAULO 86 Lynsey Paulo 86 is back from Albania: "Thanks for the write-up. Unfortunately I don't have the ability to e-mail you pictures. I can report that we had a safe trip. My stories are airing tonight (and last night). We had a successful trip to Albania, chronicling the state of the refugees there, and the country itself. We did not make it to the border and into Kosovo because of transport problems. We could not secure a military escort, and the local taxi would have been too dangerous. However, it was a life-changing experience, and I am glad I went. You can read about it if you like on our station web-site. WWW.KSTP.COM. I'm not sure if the webmaster has put up video shots yet or not, but there is that possibility." I didn't see anything about Lynsey's trip on the KSTP website when I looked but I did find Lynsey's bio. TOM DUHAIN 68 I was looking through old papers and came across an article about Tom Duhain 68 which I believe my mother Mary Lau gave me. From the January 9, 1999 Sacramento Bee: DuHain receives good news about his health Tom Duhain reveled in the good news: His cancer was in remission. The veteran Channel 3 (KCRA) reporter, who has not worked since October, received the encouraging report from doctors last week. He hopes to return to work next month. "My changes of a full recovery are at 90 percent," he said this week. DuHain, 48, was diagnosed last July with Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer that attacks the lymph nodes. He has since undergone a painful series of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Attempting to work during the first months of treatment, DuHain appeared on camera wearing a hat - his hair fell out from chemothereapy - and looking gaunt. "Hats have become me," he said. "I lost almost all my hair, but I'm starting to get some fuzz back and now my eyebrows are growing back in. DuHain said the diagnosis came as a huge shock. Even though he had concerns after noticng a lump around his collarbone, he had no other symptoms. The lump turned out to be a swollen lymph node. After a few months it had become too large to ignore. "I was sent to a surgeon and they took one look at it and things moved very fast after that," DuHain said. "There was three and a half months of chemotherapy, which was a small slice of hell. I had a very bad reaction to the chemo and was very sick." DuHain's doctors did have some encouraging news after the diagnosis. Hodgkin's is among the most treatable of internal cancers, DuHain said. The most difficult part of his ordeal, DuHain said, was telling his three teenage daughters, ages 13, 15 and 16, that their father had a life-threatening disease. "I think they were shocked and frightened," he said. "My youngest daughter was really frightened at how sick I became after the first chemo session. I didn't take my anti-nausea medication fast enough and I dropped to my knees in the kitchen. It really scared her." DuHain plans to be much more conscious of his diet, adding more fresh fruit, vegetables and grains and has vowed to maintain a regular exercise program once his strength returns. The past few months he hasn't had the energy to do much more than rest, watch TV and perform a few household duties. "I'm going stir crazy," he said. "I've been a combination of cook, taxi drivier and disciplinarian. It's been tough on my children, too. When you're not feeling well, you're grouchy." If anyone has Tom Duhain's email address, street address or phone please let me know. I have no contact information for Tom. HALL OF FAME Frank Bravo 92 is the son of Encina alumni Nancy Downs 72/73 AND Frank Bravo 70. He is the second alumni whose parents were both Encina alumni. MICHAEL BROWN 69 Michael Brown 69 wrote: On 9 Febuary 1998, while I was on my way to work, there was an accident on south bound 99, in which a large delivery truck struck a Chevy Blazer and both vehicles were engulfed in flames. When I had stop to help, there were two men carrying a woman over the middle divider. I went to help them, and one man told me a baby was still inside the Blazer. I had to jump over the divider and I had to go all the way into the Blazer, and the 7 month old baby was in the back on the passenger side. I had problems getting the back of the seat to sit upright, as it had come down on the baby. Once I got the car seatbelt undone, I handed the baby out of a broken window, to the man that helped the husband pull out the wife. Within a matter of a few seconds after I got out and back over the divider, flames had completely engulfed the rear of the Blazer, where myself and the baby had been. I have since been recognized by the Calif. State Assembly, received the Hero on the Month award from KRAK radio, received an award from the Sacramento Mayor and the City Council members, received a Certificate of Valor from the Sacramento Fire Department, been recognized by the Sutterville and Sacramento Optimus Clubs, received the Army Commander's Award for Humanitarian Service (from the Army Corps of Engineers), and am presently waiting to hear from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission in Pittsburgh, PA. I recently e-mail them to find out when I could expect to hear from them in awarding me their award, as I have had friends and family members asking me if I have heard from them yet, and this is the answer I received back from them, "While you are to be commended for giving of yourself at a time when your help was needed, the Commission has elected not to proceed with an award in your case inasmuch as it did not meet the requirements of the fund") I have read about many of the past and present awardees in their web site http://trfn.clpgh.org/carnegiehero/(and what they did and none them them were any different from what I did and I am very disappointed in their answer. I was also interviewed by the CHP for a possible award from them about six months ago, they can't seem to find all the witnesses, and the ones they did talk to don't remember much as a year has already past by, if they had done this right after the accident more people would have remembered all of the details!! For me, I will never forget that day, as long as I live!! I can still remember the sounds and smell of the two burning vehicles, the intense heat from the fire!! I still have nightmares about that day!! Here is the Sacramento Bee story: COMMUTER RESCUES BABY FROM CAR FIRE Tuesday, February 10, 1998 Section: METRO Page: B1 By Yvonne Chiu Bee Staff Writer -- Michael Brown was just one of thousands of motorists heading to work on Highway 99 Monday morning. But when two cars on an adjacent stretch of roadway collided and burst into flames, he displayed rare courage that saved the life of an infant. As one man lay critically injured with his leg swallowed in flames, Brown said he dove into a family of three's burning Blazer and pulled free a 7-month-old girl trapped inside the wreckage. "The mother was crying, "My baby, my baby, my baby,' " said Brown, a 47-year-old computer assistant with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. "I just jumped right on in and I wasn't even thinking I could get hurt." California Highway Patrol investigators said a delivery truck being driven by Mauricio Castillo, 30, a resident of Cressey in Merced County, was traveling too fast for the flow of traffic in the southbound slow lane. When it came up on slower moving traffic ahead of him, Castillo slammed on the brakes, causing them to lock and the truck to skid in front of the path of a Blazer two lanes to the left. The Blazer, being driven by 26-year-old Teofilo Gutierrez-Mosquedo of Woodland, struck the driver's side of the truck, causing a side gas tank to burst into flames. Smoke and fiery car wreckage closed all southbound lanes of Highway 99 at Fruitridge Road for roughly an hour before Caltrans workers partially opened the highway at 10:30 a.m. They were able to completely clear the road half an hour later. The infant, Alicia Gutierrez, was unharmed. Her mother, 28-year-old Darlene Gutierrez, had been pulled out by her husband and other rescuers. She received severe lacerations to her face and head. Her husband, who works in a Woodland rice packaging company, complained of pain all over his body. Castillo, the driver of the delivery truck, was able to climb out the truck but received second- and third-degree burns to half his body. His 26-year-old brother, Teodoro Castillo, a passenger in the truck was unharmed. They were all rushed to the UC Davis Medical Center, where everyone except Teodoro Castillo is being treated. No one is facing criminal charges in connection with the accident. Brown, who lives near Elk Grove, said it had been a pretty smooth commute to his office in downtown Sacramento before he heard an explosion. "I heard a loud boom and fire and smoke. Something told me to stop," he said. Driving north on Highway 99, he pulled his car over and climbed over the center divider. Once on the other side, he saw a man whose leg was on fire and someone rushing to help him and a woman being pulled out of another car. Brown said he didn't think about himself. He heard that a baby was still inside a car and he acted. With fire climbing in the front seats, Brown said he had a hard time removing Alicia from her seat belt. She was "surprisingly quiet," but awake and conscious. When he finally managed to free her, he stuck her out of the car and gave her to one of the people helping. "She had a real round face, chubby cheeks, brown eyes just like my two girls," Brown said. Brown, whose own daughters are 16 and 12, played down his actions. "I have two kids myself and I would hope someone would do the same for my kids." CHP Officer Brent Carter, who was one of the first on the scene, described the situation as chaotic at first, leaving plenty of chances for a larger tragedy. The quick rescue efforts offered by strangers was the day's salvation. "He didn't have to stop but he did. Those are the kind of people we need more of," Carter said. Bee staff writer Peter Hecht contributed to this report. All content © The Sacramento Bee and may not be republished without permission. EDUCATIONAL WEB SITE Michael Babayco 72 writes: Just to let you know...... here's a "local boy's educational web site" story I am the Coordinator of the California Distance Learning Project which I have created the web site for (http://www.otan.dni.us/cdlp/). It is for adult education and specifically for adults who are limited readers. One of the main focuses for this site is to offer limited educational instruction to those folks through our web site. It has a section for adult students to practice their reading and answer comprehension questions as well as "hear" the page by clicking on a button that will play a sound file of someone (like me!) reading the text aloud using Real Player/Audio technologies. It is not usually grouped with K-12 web sites but I have had classrooms of all grades from all over the world (Brazil, Japan, France, Russia, etc.) respond to our "Show and Tell" section. FILEZONE There are several online backup and storage services which allow you to backup or store files on the internet. A few offer small amounts of storage for free. All data is encrypted for security. I had not thought of using them because backing up a big disk via a modem line would take forever. On line backup isn't practical without a high speed internet connection. However, a recent article suggested using free online backup services as a convenient way to transfer documents between home and work and to make documents accessible while travelling. I take documents back and forth from home all the time and this actually works quite well. Especially if the files are too large to fit on a floppy and you don't have a zip drive. I signed up with Internet FileZone (www.i-filezone.com), which lets you store up to 10Mb for free. Now I just upload my files at work and download at home or vice versa. Very convenient. ONEBOX I got my onebox account this week. I now have a phone number at which people can leave me voicemail or send me faxes. Onebox sends me an email when I have a voicemail or fax or email. I access their website to "read" my mail. Faxes are converted to gif or tiff files which you can view online. Voicemail are converted to wav files you can listen to with standard windows software. Very cool. You can leave me a voicemail or send me a fax at 650-503-3095 x1007. Sign up for your own account at www.onebox.com. STORE This week amazon.com has added stores which sell toys and electronics. Check it out! WHAT'S NEW This is the slowest week for new alumni in some time... 7/14/99: Archie Ciotti 80, Michael Babayco 72 update, Russell Hauf 87 update 7/13/99: John Russell 61, Carol Mills 61 7/12/99: Ann Simpson 79, Jeff Frei 75, Lori Kern 73 update, Chris Pasley 79 update 7/9/99: Ken Johnson 67 update, Frank Bravo 92/bio, Michael Brown 69 bio update Have a good weekend! Harlan Lau 73 Encina webmaster www.encinahighschool.com harlan@rambus.com