Morning Walk

This morning on the walk to school (I have to give exam #2 to my class and I need to read it out loud one last time to ensure that it makes sense, I have a tendency to write things that make sense to me in my head, however when I say them out loud, well, they seem to be written in gibberish) I saw an awesome sunrise with a sky full of red clouds (this past summer I saw so many awesome sunsets, you forget how great a feeling it is to see them).

The sunrise this morning reminded me of the drives I made with my summer-life-partner Nate from Santa Fe up to Espanola. We would drive in silence for about 35-40 minutes and right before we would the ERD (Espanola Ranger District) we would stop at conspiracy coffee for a donut and coffee for a buck (and once a week our pal the owner would give it to us on the house, unbelievable). At least three times a week (we worked ten hour days) we would look to the right and watch the clouds change colors and since we drove through one long valley, we would have to wait 10 minutes for the sun to peak over the Sangre De Cristo Mountains. The color change was usually slow and reds were vibrant and occasionally oranges and deeper reds seemed like a painting. Awesome stuff. Then again, maybe I was tired.

WS Game #5

A police officer scatters and puts out a fire on Broad Street near the corner of Walnut Street after the Phillies beat the Tampa Bay Rays in the World Series, in Philadelphia, October 29, 2008. Fans from all over the city gathered on Broad Street near City Hall after the game, several fires were started by fans.
(Jessica Griffin/Staff Photographer Philadelphia Inquirer)

I got home late from the bar (went with the misses to meet some goofy Australian who is apparently breaking the heart of friend of hers, however the bar was fun, including the drunk/lonely guy who came up to our table to tell us Obama was ruining the world series, I sensed his loneliness and asked him some questions including one where he told us/me that he travels so much his wife complains about not getting to spend any time with her, which I didn't want to point out to him that his sitting in a bar without his wife might also be construed as not spending time with her, but whatever) and I got home in time to watch the Phillies retake the lead and then watch Lidge close out the game (which was reminiscent of game one of the brewers' series).
After the last strike-out I watched two interviews then turned it off. Felt sorta cheated of having invested time in a major sport's event and not having that feeling of being happy I watched (or really having a conclusion, it seemed to lack a closing). Might have to rethink my approach to sports. Later I watched Robot Chicken and Moral Orel and that made me laugh (I expressed more emotion watching goofy cartoons rather then baseball's biggest game, weird).

I'm going to vote in a little bit.
Go Democracy! I hope my vote counts (if I was someone who loved challenging elections, I would be someone who I would challenge, new residence, still on the election books in at least four counties: Mississippi, Ohio, Wisconsin & Minnesota).

Student Fun

So I have this one student who a small problem.
This student was arrested this past summer for a minor hunting/drinking event (it was covered in the paper this summer and the professors in this department all came to talk to me about it, along with their opinions about a bunch of other students I have in my class, but I have withheld judgement about them all, you know me, even-handed and non-judgemental).
This was not a problem and this student came to me to explain their problem early in the semester, however after regular attendance all semester (including on Fridays when as their first class of the day, this student sorta recked of cigarettes, stale beer, and occasionally the gutter/street/outdoors {not sure if they made it home and instead slept it off in a bush the previous night}) this student had gone missing. They missed about a week of class and I asked around but no one knew what happened to them.
Well, this student finally came into the office they let me use and told me the most fascinating story about why they had missed the past four classes.
It turns out that when they transfer you from one jail to another jail, if there are typos on your transfer notice and if they forget to include your work-release statement/agreement, they will hold in jail until they clean up the typos and find out if you are telling the truth about the work-release ("Come on, you know me. I would never lie about my agreement to leave the jail everyday").
So this student has missed the better part of four classes because the penal system screwed up his paperwork. They came to the office and explained to me how they'll need me to sign off on the official sign-off/release sheet (which I then reminded them that it was their responsibility to remind me, which seemed to stun them but they recovered and we agreed to make eye contact at the end of the hour and thus spare them some humiliation and yes this student does seemed dazed from the past two weeks).
We then went over everything that person missed (I even let this student take a quiz late, I believe I have to be part of the solution in their rehabilitation) and then they informed me that they would be allowed to use a personal computer while they are incarcerated (and I told them to email me they are lonely, you know me, Mr. Society).
If I ever had doubts that the system might still be working, well, I still might doubt it, but I actually had a good conversation with this student about their role in class, the department, their future and some current events. We talked about life, how their steady had a role in the play I just saw (and I thought that actor was pretty good and told them to congratulate them on what I saw as a success, you know me, Mr. Theater Critic) and in a few things they might want to read while they are behind bars.
Love college.

Ahh' Go Old School

Mighty Roar

My love of the Panther runs deep (thank you Matt for noticing my decal on the back of the truck, although someday I might need to get a real Ole Miss one, when more time has passed my love of that school will most likely increase).
The best dunk I ever saw in person, occurred when I drove up to the Motor City to see UWM play Detroit(Mercy). Ed McCants threw one down that brought everyone in the gym to their feet (Detroit's small arena on campus, while not as cool as the Toledo complex {where they had a bar on the upper level}, was old and neat).
Once upon a time, I used to do things (sometimes).
Go School.

Old School Goes Down

Ohh' Well

I guess the peeing episode didn't help them in this game.

Also saw that most of the city schools went down. On Friday, there is an all-day Minnesota High School competition here in Grand Forks at our indoor football facility. Might try to go over and witness some 9-man football (and early vote at the same time, our early voting is in one of the convention center which is attached to the football place).

Also, I like the new design of the Journal website.
More cleaner and more professional in a way.

I'm a Dope

Funny Stuff

This made me laugh.
One of my favorite lessons during a policy class I took at Clemson was in voting on an issue when you are in some sort of committee or at the local level. The key of the lesson (to me) was not in getting a coalition or a majority of people to vote in your favor or even back your issue. The key was in getting people to not vote or to hold a caucus when the people who are not on your side (or not sure and vote against the issue) are not present. Or, making the issue so unclear that people might vote against when in voting against it they be voting for it. I laughed in class pretty hard. To me it was so brilliant in its simplicity, in a group of ten you might only need two other votes to get your proposition passed.
Go Democracy!

Troubles

Credit Card Fun

One of the big problems that could really haunt the little and me, might just happen.
Like many people, we need to get to zero fast (which would mean that I should be working full-time and not part time, ha ha, then I wouldn't have time for this, double ha ha).

I spent today's class explaining motivation (intrinsic versus extrinsic and motivating groups of people) (I know, this is the definition of irony me teaching leadership, and at times like today it dawns on me how ridiculous it might seem to people I know seeing me try to teach leadership qualities to others, ha ha). So after covering motivation we had an exam review in which was student driven through their questions (when I called on some students to ask questions, their responses continue to amaze me, in fact we had a brief discussion of what defines a lame question and yet I have to know which students I can 'pick on' and which ones I need to encourage, I love the dance of teaching, but again, are they really learning anything, ummmmmm).

Slate - The Opinions

I love Slate.
I go to the website every other day if not everyday and love what I read (everyday I make myself some sort of personal newspaper, which is always heavy on sports news, the beauty of the Internet is the availability of reading local {faraway} newspapers, and now I scan about ten newspapers/magazines and put together the articles I want to read either before or after the evening meal {there is something of a linguistic difference between supper and dinner, so now I go with evening meal}, I used to make one specifically for the little lady, but she accused me of giving her propaganda to make her vote for one certain Presidential candidate {and I was} and now I make them for me and 'leave' it around the apartment and sometimes she has the time to pursue them, ha ha).
I also download almost all of their podcasts (love the political one which comes at the end of the week, I also like the cultural ones and the spoiler ones, the daily ones are okay and sometimes very good, sometimes).
Today they printed who they are voting for and more importantly why, so here you go.


Emily Bazelon, Senior Editor: Obama
"I am voting for Barack Obama because I agree with his tax policy, and I like his health and energy plans fine. I think he'll help restore our bruised image abroad. And I know he is about 1,000 times more likely than John McCain to choose Supreme Court justices who will resist rather than further the push to the right by Bush's picks, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. So for me, it's an easy call. But even if I were less sure of Obama on those fronts, I think I would vote out the Republicans as a matter of stewardship. They led us to a war of hugely questionable value, gave us an overweening theory of presidential power, and have now left us with a scary financial crisis. John McCain isn't George Bush, but his plans and promises are too much like the standard Republican fare that has gotten us into trouble. And won't get us out of it. Enough. Please, please, it's time for new faces."

I agree with the last point most, the Republican party has spent the last eight years fighting way too many wars (including the war to rig elections forever in their favor and the reason no one should feel safe about an Obama win, voter problems for many kinds of people).


David Plotz, Editor of Slate: Obama
Ever since McCain inexplicably went ballistic on me in my first (and last) interview with him a decade ago, I've suspected he was too volatile to be president. Nothing that has happened during this campaign has changed my mind. McCain's veering, swerving campaign, his weak team of advisers, his bizarre behavior during the economic bailout, and his appalling selection of Sarah Palin confirm that he lacks the temperament to be president. By contrast, Obama has shown during this endless campaign that he has a first-class temperament. He also has a stellar collection of advisers, a natural curiosity, and an absolutely ruthless political sense. Those will take him far. President Obama will surely disappoint America—given the expectations, how could he not?—but I'm confident he'll lead the country more steadily and more effectively than President McCain would.

When you here David talk about the election you can tell he doesn't drink the Kool-Aid, he may be dishing it out to strangers (who are only friends we have not meet). I did not know the first part which may explain his attitude.

Campus

This is a pretty accurate picture of what it looks like here at the moment (okay, maybe more of the leaves have fallen off, but in the middle of the day, this is an accurate look into the campus quad area).
I'm sort of surprised at the lack of activity here, I rarely see anyone doing anything in the quad (the ceremonial heart of campus, well maybe, actually not sure what the heart of campus is, since technically the place where 'we' play hockey is on campus but not owned by campus).
Huh.
Need to finish grading a host of assignments that have plied up on the desk they let me use (it's actually quite nice, pleasant even).
Should be a another quality day here, they walk over in the dark is also a nice walk (and short at only 20 minutes).
Cool.

Huh?

So, I'm still wondering what I am doing wrong.
I have spent on average 3 to 5 hours everyday just looking for work again (although to be fair, much time today was spent trying to use the wife's job history excel file which is turning out to be fun to fill in, maybe).
I'm hoping to have something in hand sooner rather then later (still have almost no concept of how to use 'then' and 'than').
Good news, I guess my department was serious about having another super-part-time job, I'll be teaching a class on interpretation next semester. They gave me copies of old syllabi and told me look at the books. That class should be a travel heavy or at least visit heavy class (there are plenty of places to see and learn from, hopefully).
Sigh.

College Football Mussings

I told the little lady that the only thing I would regret about moving away from Clemson (outside of the all the great people, the education, the climate and living in a cave where it was always dark, damp and sort of sad, "there is evil in there") was if the mighty Clemson football team ran the table and played for either the national championship or in a major bowl game.
Well, nothing to worry about now. After Alabama blew apart the tigers, you just knew it was all over. I think they will win maybe three more games; Boston College (for last year's loss), Duke (Duke is better than in the past), and Virginia or South Carolina (if they beat the gamecocks, thank you for playing Ole' Ball Coach).
Things nay not be all roses and candy there.

I have loved Stanford ever since seeing them play in the 2000 Rose Bowl.
Actually, all of my love is centered on their marching band (the best show by a marching band that I have ever seen, the UW 5th quarter is awesome, but the display of emotion I witnessed by The Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band was awe inspiring and of all the things I have had stolen from me, the Standford marching band CD was it, I still find myself humming the Green Day song they covered and hear it as a marching band tune, again awesome).
So I root for them. Do not care if the win or lose (to paraphrase Ole Miss, “We may not win every game, but we’ve never lost a marching band contest.”)

Not sure how I feel about what now would be considered, my local Big Ten School (no matter where I have moved, the Big Ten is home, maybe).
Part of me has a deep dislike of all things connected to the 'U', but why? I'm guessing I have seen Minnesota beat many of the teams I have rooted for (Wisconsin football & hockey, Marquette basketball, and UWM baseball) and grew tired of the M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A, Minnesota, Minnesota, yeahhhhhh gophers.
Or something close to that.
Lousy.

I also wanted to make sure I put in one Brewer Picture on this thing.
I love the commercial where we get to see Ryan Braun's homer interrupted by a phone call.
Feel the tingle.
Cool.

Departmental Meeting & WS Game #5

Wow, department meeting.
When I was a Camp Director and we had our weekly camp meeting, I was loathe to have a meeting that lasted over 15-20 minutes. I'm continually amazed that University meetings seem to have a life of their own and could last until the end of time (although to be fair, I talked a bunch, still not sure why since I may or may not be a part of this department past Christmas, but I'll continue to care {or at least look like I care} until they are done with me {of course I talked with the little lady and we both agree that one of the solutions for this department could be the elimination of my position, ha ha I wish I could find a job where I could be a solution if I stayed, ha ha, well maybe I just enjoy the drifter status too much).
Today we had a meeting that lasted an hour and a half and we decided that the new flyer which describes the program is good (minus the typos and the spacing of one of the lists). I also contributed some advice on recruiting (this major is a big discovery major or we are the way some students can stay in school, which means that the quality of some of our students is, well not the equal of other horizontal departments, so our line is "Whoa, getting a 'D' in chemistry, why not try our major, it might be more your speed" or "Need to justify your seven years in college, why not try us!" I love that).
We have our meetings over in the coffee shop across the street from the University, I bring my own coffee (in trying to keep in the spirit of the new budget the wife and I set, although I went out to buy some beer last night and now I'm down to three bucks until Friday).

So I got home from the library last night to see some of the game.
Whoa.
Boswell, is he the nation's baseball conscious?


I was surprised they kept playing in what looked like awful weather (the best part was explaining to the little lady what the weather would have been like, "remember what it was like on Sunday morning, yeah like playing in that minus the snow", ha ha love winter, although my department likes to inquire how we are handling the cold weather and they laughed at and not with me when I told them of my long-underwear dilemma this morning and how once again we are in a part of the country and time of the year where you have to pay attention to what the weather will be like, sigh).

Love these pictures (thank you Philadelphia Inquirer). I also have been reading both of the local papers and am hoping the game goes on tonight. Sort of hoping they go to at least a game six, but not totally invested in the series as I have not been rushing home to see the games but rather just getting home and tuning in when I walk in the door and leaving it on as background noise.

Links:
Not Sure If I Agree
David Brooks
Thoreau
Palin
I Still Love the NBA

Phillies

Players (from left) Tug McGraw, Pete Rose and Larry Bowa being cheered by fans during the 1980 parade down Broad Street after the Phillies won the 1980 World Series.

Ohh' yeah. The Philadelphia Inquirer has the best collection of old time photos of previous Philly champs. The collection from the parades are the best.
Have I mentioned how I dislike Florida baseball teams. Ha Ha.

Links:
Philly Photos
Teddy
North Dakota Measure #1
Early Voting - Or Chance to Meet Howard Dean - OOOhhhhhhh

World Series Game Two

Last night I had the game on in the background as I was trying to read responses from the class to an assigned chapter reading (I have the class post their chapter responses the evening before I want to discuss it, it allows me to see what they think is interesting, or better yet, see what they are reading wrong, last night the realization was that many in the class are confusing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and my job today was convincing them that the textbook was correct and their understanding of the terms were wrong, close but wrong, I try to give out positive vibes when I can).
I saw Ryan Howard hit one of his two homers but somehow missed a whole chunk of the game (as in I thought the Rays were still in the game but they really weren't).

Over the weekend the little lady and I had a discussion about finances and we decided to watch our money this week and test ourselves to see if we could follow a budget. We made it to 12:43 this afternoon. Although we did split the lunch special over at the Union (Monday is pizza day and it is the best bargain of all the weekly specials). I'm not too disappointed in our efforts but if we ever want to reach zero, we may need me to find a real job (ha ha, a real job).
Cool. I'm off to see some sort of political event this afternoon (I was hoping for a rock the vote kind of thing but after reading about it, I'm guessing that there will be less rocking and more mocking {from me}).
Ohh' well.

Eternal Flame Sphere

This is a picture of the eternal flame sphere.
Besides being an awesome name for it (you mean "awesome torch of learning" or "light of North Dakota learning" were already taken?) it is the sight of the historic home to the University of North Dakota (I still have problems every once and awhile believing I live in North Dakota, ha ha). Well last night when I was walking back to the apartment (where if reports are to believed, one of the neighbor children is peeing in the pool, ha ha, pee) the flame was out.
So today I came to class and asked the class why this should be important to them (it is interesting to note that at least a third of the class did not where the flame is located {across the quad from the building they are in} and everyone did not know that there was an official name to that "thing" {one student did not want to call it art}). I asked them if the light is out, are they required to learn anything? Or even be in class, shouldn't we all go home (if the light of learning is out, where am I to take guidance in pursuing education?)?
They all laughed at (not with) me, then we sat through a whole class period of book reports (yeesch, this class has a tendency to not help each other out at times and today it seemed as if all of them tuned out at once, although the one student who did his leadership book report on Chuck Norris' book Black Belt Patriotism, got big laughs across the board, it helped that he started out with one of the Chuck Norris jokes and how later he admitted that he did judge the book by its cover, the reason he chose the book was because Chuck looked "pretty cool" on the cover).
Not sure how I feel about today's class.
Better be ready for Wednesday.
Cool.

My Teams

I have to admit that late on Saturday's I find myself tuning in to whatever game is on (usually one of the wife's teams, lousy Georgia, Tennessee, or whatever schools she is claiming now) to see if Ole Miss won that.
Let's be honest, we attended during the dreadful Coach O years.
While he was comedy gold (read Micheal Lewis's book The Blind Side) his teams found ways to lose at the end of games (and the quarterback which doomed him, again Brent Schaeffer was comedy gold but he, well, was not good either, also, when Ole Miss lost to State last year, Coach O was out 24 hours later, which I predicted to the little woman, however it did not take a psychic for that one).
Glad to see the Rebels win.

Watched the beginning of the game and told the little lady that I believed the Badgers were going to win (if I were a betting person, I would have bet on this, however I would have also bet on Boston College, LSU, Virginia Tech, and other teams that did lose yesterday). It's probably better I do not gamble.
This week I have the privilege to see Wisconsin play North Dakota at the Ralph. That should be good.
Ha Ha.
Go local school (I'm not behind the current logo/mascot which has made it hard to purchase either a hat or sweatshirt since the Sioux logo is everywhere on all clothing items).
Ohh' well. The nickname and logo are not long for this Earth, it seems to be the smart thing to do, however like at Ole Miss, alumni and students feel differently (and as an outsider, do I really understand what all of this means? Nah, more to come on this).
Cool.

Snow Day Number One

What a goofy weekend.
Sorta exhausted from not really doing a whole lot.
Friday night I dragged Deb to see "Lend me a tenor" which was put on by the local community theater group (before seeing the show I was pretty amazed at the dearth of cultural events here, well the show proves there may be some culture here in Grand Forks, I just need to look really hard for it, although that is being hard on a few things I have enjoyed since being here; the farmer's market, the green way paths, and...... I'll have to think of a few others).
Saturday we went to a craft fair that was light on crafts and heavy on mass-marketed products. Not sure if it was worth the two dollars it cost each of us to go in, but I felt good about the snowman painting I bought which states "believe in the magic". I really need to follow this advice.
This morning, Deb dragged me to church (after I dragged her to a community pancake breakfast at the senior center, next time I'm not turning down the opportunity to have home-made whipped cream on my pancakes, I went to a health fair on Thursday and I found out that I'm relatively healthy on my blood tests, I do need to drop the 20 pounds I picked up at the end of grad school, I am now officially obese and not overweight according to the very helpful nurse who read me my results, I tried blaming the heavy sweater I was wearing at the time and Dave was not having it, although he did tell me my weight could be related to my muscle mass, we both had a good laugh at that). Back to church, I guess, well, not all churches are for everybody.

Ohh' wow.
So we knew that the weather was coming (as in, not only did I watch the weather last night and see the storm that was coming, but everyone we meet tells us to "get ready" for six months of winter, and at no time is anyone joking, talking to Joey last weekend he just told to try and pick moments during the winter to remember that it will all end at some point and try to not get too depressed, ha ha, sob weep).
I was amazed at the wind.
Sigh.

Obama
On Friday I read the Times editorial about why they are backing Obama for President.
I'm doing my best to not get excited and thus feel disappointed later.
Believe.
Cool.

Friday Mussings

Sighhh.
I actually have a better feeling this week above others, but love this article:
20 Hour a Week Workers
I have made it a goal to try and apply for three jobs everyday. The wife has been very helpful and reminded me to keep a "job search" excel file so that I do not apply for the same job twice (or to justify why I applied for that job).


So today I included an assignment in class where I wanted them to explore a presidential candidate (there are five official presidential candidates here in North Dakota) and we had to have a quick talk about jingoism.
I love that term.
I then got to act out someone who would be jingoistic about the University of North Dakota (including me using the term "well at North Dakota we do").
Ohh' man, did the class eat that up. I picture my three fifty minute sessions with the class as an opportunity to emotional have a connection with something (while I hope that is something scholarly, sometimes it may not be). The danger with my personal teaching philosophy is that the class may not actually be learning anything. I walk a tight line between a hour of comedy where the class leaves with no real idea of why they were in class, or hopefully, coached in the lesson is an actually lesson. I tell the class all the time that in recreation classes, that they have already seen everything they are studying, so it is important to connect the textbook ideas to their lives (not just the real world, but their real world).
Again, not sure if I am succeeding in this endeavor.


So last night I was watching the World Series (instead of going to some political talk which in hindsight might have been more fun then I realize) and after the fourth/fifth inning, I turned away from it and watched other junk.
Does it seem like Jon Stewart has picked a side in this great struggle?
I have been listening to Keith Olbermann ever day (someday soon, ten favorite podcasts) and while I know he is sorta slanted and snarkey, I enjoy the 45 minutes.

Liks of Note:
Love John Dickerson

Reawakening - North Dakota Style

Well let's try this again.
This is a sun dog (the ring around the sun, or moon I guess, and yes I borrowed it from the University of Utah) on a super cold day (which I'm so looking forward to).
After visiting some long-lost friends this past weekend, they mentioned how they enjoyed the blog I used to keep up during my grad school years.
So here we go again.


So I watched game one of the series last night.
Yes, I despise most any baseball team from Florida (I never cared for any of the teams from Miami that won the series, lousy Jose Mesa) and want the Phillies to win (which would also mean that the Brewers could have made the series, well maybe not, watching that round of the playoffs you could see that the Crew was barely hanging on).

I'm hoping to return to campus later this afternoon (University of North Dakota) to watch some talk on the great human/environment experiment. Last night I almost went to the big Grand Forks Central versus Red River (also located here in town) high school football game (pitting two teams with two wins between them, however, there was playoff implications on the line which says more for how many schools are actually in this state then the amount of good football here, maybe). It was misty and cold and I realize that as I become older I want to sit outside in the cold less and less (however, as my wife pointed out to me last night, I might also benefit from a male friend in this area, ha ha, I shudder to think that my loner days might finally be getting to me).
The wife turned down tickets to Reba and Kelly tonight (I told her initially that I would not see them, however I should have stated that I never would have paid to see them but would have sat through both shows for free, ha ha).
I plan on dragging her around to events both Friday (some sort of musical where clothes are optional for some of the actors) and Saturday nights (I'm dragging her to some goofy tiny town located about 45 minutes from here to see Warren-Alvarado-Oslo High School play Lake of the Woods High School in the Minnesota football playoffs).
So there you go. I'll be trying my best to update this thing everyday.
Or not.
Cool.

Links of note:
Obama
Palin Defense
T. Boone Pickens - Still Evil