Category Archives: Universities

Trinity College Dublin

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A number of years ago, I went to Ireland for 18 wonderful days. What a trip it was! Ireland is an amazing country, as are the people who live there.

One of the things that my awesome vacation planner did, was to schedule some time at Trinity College. In fact, one night we stayed in the dorm. Classes were not in session, so you can rent a room out. We got Room 28.

Here are some pictures that I took at the college.

Looking out the window from Room 28, it was dark. There were some bikes just outside, illuminated by the street light. I wanted that image. It reminded me of something out of a ‘Harry Potter’ movie. I set the shutter to remain open. I can’t recall for how long – 4 seconds maybe. However, during the time the shutter was open, three people walked by. In the final image, they appear as wispy ghosts, just in front of the bikes. If you enlarge the image, you can really see the ghosts. I don’t normally title many of my photos, but I had to title this one “Trinity Ghosts.”

Trinity College houses the “Book of Kells.” One of the most beautiful ‘illuminated manuscripts’ in European history.

Here is a student outside our dorm room. I couldn’t help but think how this light was illuminating his manuscript. Perhaps a best seller in progress?

If I had been a professor of Research Psychology at the college, this would have been my office window. Why? Of course, the wine bottles give it away.

This sculpture, resides just outside the entry into the library. A ‘Sphere Within Sphere or Sfera con Sefra,’ is an amazing bronze done by Italian artist Arnaldo Pomodoro. Another of the artist’s spherical sculptures resides on the Cal Berkeley campus. There are a number of these spheres, ranging in different sizes, at institutions around the world.

It is said that there are two kinds of people in this world, those who are Irish, and those who want to be Irish. Having spent time in Ireland, I understand that saying very well!

Dollars For College

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Here’s a fun way to save some money for that child who may be going off to college.

This is a true story of how we saved up nearly $2000 dollars.

“Dollars for College – A Fun Way to Save”

Saving extra money for college can be fun, and my friend devised a simple way to do so. 

Have you ever noticed the letter that appears on most older dollar bills? The letter indicates the location where the bill was minted.   One day my friend noticed one of the letters and said, “Look, this one is ‘B’ for my niece Bridgette.  I am going to begin saving B dollars so that when she is a freshman in college we can give her a big bundle of B dollar bills.”

I really liked the idea and begin saving the B dollars as well.  Anytime we’d go to the store or out to eat, when we received our change back from a purchase, we’d quickly go through it.  “Look, three more B dollars.”  The store clerk or server would ask, “What are B dollars?” We’d tell them the story, and they would say, “What a fun idea, I think I will do that for my kids.”

On many occasions, at stores or restaurants that we often patronized, the clerk or server upon seeing us would hand over a stack of B dollars.  “Look what I saved for you,” knowing that they were playing a role in Bridgette’s college education.  Of course, we’d give them non B dollars in return for their excellent find.  Every once in a while, they would find a twenty or a fifty with a B on it, and one time a one hundred dollar B bill.  Having them help collect bills made the college B dollar pot grow rather quickly.

One night we were sitting at dinner with a friend, and he gave us a twenty dollar B bill.  He told us that he was in Las Vegas over the weekend and was down to his last twenty.  When he pulled it out of his pocket, he noticed the B mint mark and said he just couldn’t play it, he had to save it for us.

After a few months, we had many of our friends and co-workers looking out for B dollars.  I really think some of them enjoyed the hunt as much as we did.

When Bridgette’s first semester of college arrived, we handed over nearly two thousand B dollars!  We told her the story of how we’d been collecting for about two years.  She cherished  the story, and of course the money too.  During her college years, we continued to save B dollars, sending her many surprise money packages.

Today, Bridgette is a teacher, and more recently a mother.  Her daughter’s name is Callie. Yep, you guessed it.  We are now saving ‘C’ dollars.  With eighteen years of saving C dollars ahead of us, we should really be able to help finance some of her college education.

Hey, my name begins with ‘C’ as well. We could use a nice vacation! Sorry Callie, you’re on your own.