I was donating to Steve's annual Becel Ride for Heart event, and for some reason my old high school shop and computer science teacher came to mind. I had found out only after some years that he had passed away and I was very saddened by it. If I knew of his passing I would have attended the funeral services.

He had a knack for making sure people didn't fuck around with him. He'd yell a lot, call idiots in the class obscene body parts but still making it legal. My first encounter with him was in Grade 9 shop class. I was only 1 of 3 girls in that class. He made sure we were well looked after and always answered our questions first. Sexist? You betcha. But he was one of my favourite teachers. I ended up with the only 90 in that class and I was ecstatic (I DID earn it tho .. those drawings were hard).

I had him again for Grade 10 Computers. Granted his teaching ways weren't always the best, but if you asked, he always told you what you needed to do to get high marks. And that I did. Only a handful of us asked what we needed to do for the 10 page essay. He said just write about ANYTHING. Pictures are good too. So we did that, and 100% we got.

I remember he always smelled of coffee. He'd always be sipping some from his mug. He told me why the ink on the papers I submitted had lines running through them. He told me the difference between good and crappy pencil lead. He's also the one who said I should scream like a crazy maniac instead of keeping quiet should I ever saw my finger off in shop.

3 teachers in class have ever made me blush real hard, and he was one of them.

RIP Mr. Silzer .. you will always be remembered.

His obituary.