Hey! That’s Ellis! We caught this advertisement for Cleveland State University of IdeaStar client Ellis Yan of Technical Consumer Products Inc. at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Nice to see his smiling face!
IdeasStar Web developer Brian Swan wakes to the sound of birds every morning – from inside the house. Sometimes its like living in a jungle, but it’s a lot of fun. He and his wife Valerie have three birds. The first is a Nanaday Conure named Duncan.
Duncan
Duncan is just a little bigger than a Cockatiel. Brian tells the following story. “A lady that works with my wife saw a bird sitting on a wire and knew it was nothing like any of the other birds around in looks or in sound. She said ‘Here birdy birdy’ and if flew to her finger. They kept the bird for about six months before they realized having a Nanday Conure was not for them. This bird has a screech that rattles human eardrums. My wife and I love birds and decided that he would make a nice addition to the family. I don’t regret it at all. We believe that he came from somewhere near the zoo as he imitates eagles and monkeys very well. He tries to say hello and whistles a couple of tunes. We’ve see him dance and do some foot stomping when we put on certain types of music. He seems to enjoy the upbeat songs the best.”
Brian and Chico
The next bird is the Double Yellow Headed Amazon, Chico (a little over a foot from head to toe with a three-foot wingspan). Brian bought Chico from a breeder when the bird was nine months old. This is probably why he is the tamest, the friendliest and the best mannered. He is now eight years old. Chico is usually quite friendly and loves attention. He loves to sing with you or the radio and he talks up a storm some days. Chico learned Jingle Bells, Happy Birthday, bits of Lovin You (Minnie Ripperton) and some of Brian’s own little special bird ditties 
.
When the phone rings, Chico has a one sided conversation and usually says hello before the phone is picked up. Although Amazon’s are usually one of the more aggressive types of parrots, Brian says Chico is nothing more than a bundle of fun loving joy. He does follow the personality of clowning around as most of the Amazons do.
Sancho
And the largest and latest family addition is a gorgeous Scarlet Macaw named Sancho (wing span of four feet and about three feet from head to tail) who is about eight years old. Brian’s wife found this bird on the Internet and it happened to be less than a mile away. The previous owners had a small child in the house and weren’t prepared to take care of the bird long term. They got the bird when their relative had to be moved into a medical facility.
This poor bird lived in Las Vegas and was caught in a house fire where all of his siblings were consumed by the fire. Brian knew he had some behavioral issues, but decided he too would be a nice addition. Brian said they’ve had Sancho six months, so he’s just getting settled in.
“He’s beautiful, but he’s big and mighty. If you hand him a Brazil nut, you will find shreds of a nut and an empty shell within about 30 seconds to a minute. He cracks Brazil nuts like we crack peanuts. He shreds and massacres about one to two toys a week. It’s pretty crazy when the other two birds take a month or two to destroy one. The Scarlet Macaw can produce up to 2000 pounds of pressure per square inch with his beak . Yes, that’s a ton! (Amazons can produce probably 250-350 pounds.)
“You can understand why I’m very careful around this one. He’s not fully tame yet and he has nipped everyone in the family. He does say a few words. He tends to tell the other birds to “Shut Up” when they scream, although he mutters those words to himself from time to time heh-heh. He did not learn that at my house.
“I tend to like getting them riled up and having fun. When he wants to, he can let out a nice loud scream that’s heard for about a block (with the windows closed). This is usually the squawk that is let out when either my wife and I are leaving or when someone rings the doorbell. Ahhhh… to live in a jungle!
Brian said the birds have their own personalities, but they are such a strong happy and positive influence in the house, he couldn’t imagine life without them. They are the entire meaning of “happy thoughts!”
Copyright 2009 IdeaStar Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
IdeaStar Project Manager Jane Hudeck says she is still pinching herself. She recently traveled to Pittsburgh with (from L to R) her son Nick, husband Jim, and son Jimmy for national hockey competition.
Nick is a member of the Cleveland Barons who qualified for the 18-and-under Tier 1 USA Hockey National Tournament by winning the Mid-American District Tournament they hosted in mid-March. They finished third over all.
Nick has played with Cleveland Barons Hockey for the past two seasons after learning the ropes with Trinity hockey. Jane said he moved to the Barons for more opportunities toward his goal of becoming a professional hockey player. “He is also a straight “A” student and we are very proud of his academic achievement,” Jane said.
Nick
“Making the U-18 Midget Major Team was a great achievement for Nick, especially since there were approximately 150 kids that tried out for the team. The team has traveled to Michigan, Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City. He had a blast and felt like he gained 19 more brothers! They actually came in first place in their division in the Midwest Elite Hockey League and took the Crown, which means they had the most goals overall,” Jane said.
In Pittsburgh, the team won the first 4 out of 6 games and went home with a bronze metal, ranking third in the nation, Jane said, adding “It has been an amazing season and so much fun. We were very fortunate to be involved and have such a great group of kids and parents!”
Greg Kopp and son Joe
IdeaStar Development Manager Greg Kopp and his son Joe recently returned from Slidell, Chalmette and New Orleans, LA where they put their muscles to work in hurricane rehab. They joined 24 others from Cuyahoga Valley Church working through several Baptist churches in the New Orleans area.
Greg and Joe painted a ceiling in one house, emptied the contents of a storm damaged house, worked on new construction at a church, repaired the bathroom floor of one house and tore down an old shed in the same backyard, and dry walled two bedrooms of another house. Whew! We’re tired just thinking about it.
Greg is proud of Joe, 13, who even lead a Bible study group. And how is New Orleans looking as it continues to rebuild from Hurricane Katrina in 2005? “Much better than I expected since it was much worse than I expected last year,” Greg, who volunteered for Habitat for Humanity last year, said. “Lots of progress in less than a year. Visited the house I worked on. The family finally moved in.”
Copyright 2009 IdeaStar Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Doug Parsons
IdeaStar staff members have a variety of outside interest – everything from hockey to running to whatever you can imagine. This week let’s take a look at Web developer Doug Parsons’ service as a judge for the Business Professionals of America (BPA) Ohio State Leadership Conference. Doug is the latest addition to the IdeaStar team.
Hundreds of students from all over Ohio recently competed in a myriad of events such as Web site Design, Web Application Design, Multimedia Presentation, and Extemporaneous Speech. Doug was one of two judges for the Web Application Design category.
So how did he become a judge? Doug became a member of BPA while a high school student attending classes at Kent State University. His instructor, Rhonda Orr, is the regional coordinator for the event. She asked if Doug and his colleague Matthew Bernard could judge the regional competition in January, and recommended them for judging the state competition.
Bonus fact: During high school, Doug placed fifth for Extemporaneous Speech I and eighth in Web Site design in the state competition.
This year, the participants in the Web Application Design category were asked to build an online sports retailer that incorporated aspects of e-commerce, including encryption of sensitive fields and encryption of sensitive data transmission via SSL. Participants gave presentations, then answered questions from the judges.
First place went to Medina County Career Center (.Net Web Application) and second place went to D. Russell Lee CTC (PHP Web Application), with only a two point difference between first and second place. “These two teams represented the creme de la creme of the competition and their applications were stunning and, I must say, I was even a bit impressed that they were able to accomplish what they did being High School students.,” Doug said.
Judging is simple, right? Not so fast. Doug said “It was one of the most exhausting things that I have done! I have worked 18-hour days and not been as tired as I was when I left Columbus that evening. Aside from that, I learned these events are some of the most stressful things some of these kids have done and that it is the judges’ responsibility to pick up on this and calm the students down.”
Doug said he enjoyed donating his time to both the regional and state competitions because, while a little cliché, it is really all about the kids. “With regard to the Web Applications competition especially, there is at least one student on the team that is looking to make programming a career. If I can help foster that drive through judging and positive yet critical feedback, then my time was well worth it.”
Copyright 2009 IdeaStar Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
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