Westwood Becomes Inter-Active, June 1st at WVRC
CLAWSON BLEAK (and watch that pronunciation, please) led the Pledge. LENNY & PP JIM did the honors on the song, and NICK KAHRILAS provided the Invocation.
“As members of Rotary, we pray that we are ever mindful of opportunities to render our service to fellow citizens and to our community…the enduring values of life, exerting our efforts on those things which future generations can build on. May we be challenged to give our best always.” Well done, Nick – Thanks.
President DON spoke briefly about the passing of RICK LIVERMORE. Rick passed away last Monday of a stroke – he was 93. Rick had one son, Peter. He joined WVRC in 1988 and had 16 years of perfect attendance. Funeral arrangements are pending. We then had a Moment of Silence in RICK’S memory.
There were no Visiting Rotarians, but there were guests. NICK KAHRILAS brought along Wayne Pickrell, another one of those Betas – of which he is the District Chief. PETER MORE had a Special Guest, Janice Ng, who is with Morgan Stanley. The only part of her card that I could read was her name and address – all the rest was in, maybe, Chinese or Japanese. However, since she sat at our table, I know she does speak English! (Whoops – on the other side of her card it was all in English, so there is hope for all of us) CANDICE DANESHVAR had a guest, Evelyn, who is a fellow-Rotaractor vesting from NYU.
Also at my table was Sharon Padua, the Development Coordinator for Junior Blind.
She spoke about what they do – and it is quite varied. They have six different programs, some of which are also for adults who are blind or visually impaired . Each year in the Malibu area, they have a summer camp, which accommodates some 3000 kids and their families. The proportion of kids to counselors is 3 to 1. They feature swimming, hiking, arts and crafts, and the kids can learn some independence during this time. Community Service provided them with a check for $500 – and Sharon can be reached at
323) 295-4555.
PDG ANDY ANDERSON brought forward his guest, Roy Snapp-Kolas, who was accompanied by his wife, Sharon. They are the Executive Directors of Haven, one of the Salvation Army organizations, and we support them with a check for $!,000.. They lease two buildings at the nearby VA, and house up to 250 veterans. Veterans who come to the hospital, once released from in-patient care, are eligible to stay at Haven for up to six months. They have a total of five programs, including a substance abuse section, and one for senior veterans – those over sixty years of age. Fifteen beds are reserved for female veterans, and ninety beds are primarily for mentally ill veterans. They have been operating at the VA since 1994. While I don’t want to point any fingers, I did feel that perhaps President DON didn’t need to point out that us older types now have a place to go!
WE then announced the new roll of perfect (or almost) attendance. 1year, PEGGY BLOOMFIELD and GORDON FELL. 2 years, ED GAULD, SEAN McMILLAN, DON NELSON, RO SHAW and SHANE WAARBROEK. 3 years, CHRIS BRADFORD,
PP GEORGE DEA and MIKE GINTZ. 7 years, SLOSS VIAU. 8 years, PP PETER MORE. 12 years, CLAWSON BLEAK (pronunciation, remember!). 14 years, LEO TSENG. 15 years, LENNY FRIEDMAN. 19 years, PP STEVE SCHERER. 20 years, PP RON LYSTER. 21 years, HARLAN LEWIS and PP MIKE NEWMAN. 22 years,
PP RUDY ALVAREZ.. 23 years, GLEN SANDERSON. 25 years, TERRY M. WHITE, TERRY R. WHITE, and YOE. 26 years, FLOYD DEWHIRST AND DICK ROBINSON. 32 years, JOHN SINGLETON, and of course, our Champ, at 52 years, PP JIM DOWNIE! Congrats to all!
The Story: A very successful lawyer parked his brand new Lexus in front of the office, in order to show it off to his colleagues. As he got out, a truck came along and completely tore off the door of the Lexus. The attorney grabbed his cell phone, dialed 911, and within five minutes, a policeman arrived. Before any questions could be asked, the lawyer started screaming his story – his beautiful car, which he had just picked up the day before, was now completely ruined. It would never be the same, etc, etc. When this harangue finally wound down, the cop said, “I can’t believe you lawyers – you are so focused on your possessions that you neglect the most important things of life.” “How can you say such a thing?”, asked the lawyer. “My God, don’t you even realize that your left arm is missing?” “Oh my God” screamed the lawyer, “My Rolex!”
Before I get to the Program, my Thanks, and a correction.
Sometimes I cannot be present, and thus ask one of you to write the Windmill in my stead. KEVIN KOMATSU did the honors for the meeting of May 11th, and he did his usual excellent job. Not only did he agree immediately, when I asked him, but he was able to insert a correction regarding our late member, WALLY FISCHMAN, who served on the USS Dale during WWII. Thank you, KEVIN.
The correction concerns the new address for PP RALPH WOODWORTH. Somehow we misspelled the name of the street in Indio – it is 80811 Camino San Gorgonio, OK?
SHANE WAARBROEK introduced our Speaker, Dave Andrews. Since July of ’05 his job title is VP of Production, Interactive Entertainment, for GSN, The Network For Games. SHANE met Dave a couple of months ago, and SHANE was fascinated by his story Dave manages the production of interactive games, and previously was with Sony Entertainment.
He began by pointing out that we might recognize their network as the Game Show Network – they changed the name a couple of years ago to The Network for Games.
Their presentation to us today was to demonstrate their new interactive TV service. As you watch the show, you can play along at home. This allows you to play against any others who are watching the same show. Those who win for the week are flown to LA, and appear on the show – this draws thousands of players.
The videos that followed were sometimes very loud, and for those of us who aren’t really very adept at following an interactive program, the contents are hard to report in writing. Another mechanical problem was that the video screen is pretty small to be seen from the whole room. They were designed to be shown to potential advertisers, of course.
The viewer has a hand-held signaler, with buttons numbered from one to four. Your score shows on the screen, and the faster you signal, the more points you get. The first demonstration was the show, “Who wants to be a millionaire?”, and TERRY M. WHITE was the first participant. He turned his control over to LEE DUNAYER, who then worked on Jeopardy. And BOTH of them had the same problem – the choice buttons were so small they couldn’t really use them accurately! Anyway, a good time was had by all.
Thanks to Dave Andrews – its uncharted territory for some of us.
To Ponder
Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
