Campus Walk #2

So here is where we live, the goofy Gallery Apartments (called the Gallery Apartments since when they were first built way back when, the owners hung art in the halls, which explains all the outlets, now of course all the art is located in J-112, yes, where Art the guy lives, ha ha).


Here is a picture of what I consider one of the most beautiful spots on campus.
I walk by here every single day and this view changes everyday. It is amazing how a bunch of rain creates a ton of foam or how the cold has created this frozen sculpture. It is one of the things I look forward to seeing change as the year goes by.


This is the nicer bridge then the first one (well, it is newer so I take back the nicer part) and this is the one I walk across everyday. The part of the bridge that bothers me is that as you walk over it, you cannot help but notice all the spray-painted numbers on the lightposts. It is rather annoying and kills the aesthetic that the bridge was built to create. It's the little things people.


This is 'Eternal Flame Sphere' (the official title which is a tad unwieldy but since that is the official title of it, it makes me laugh and when we discussed the importance of the eternal flame sphere in class one day, a day like today when the flame was out, we discussed that is the flame is out, does that mean that the lamp of learning is out and all of campus should go home and hide under the covers until it is re-lit).
Love it. Also, I wonder if this thing is something that people respect and walk around and not under (there is a plaque under this thing that states that this is the official spot of 'Old Main' the first building on campus). So yes, I walk under it and on the plaque (which you would think I would not do and respect history, but it is my little 'spit in the eye' of history, but again, I love history, ohh' the conundrum).


This O'Kelley Hall, the building I teach in. The room I teach in was originally built as the room where medical students studied dead people. So every once and awhile I forgive the students if they seem dead as well.
Ba Dum Dum. I'm outta here.

Camp Walk #1

So I walked to the office this morning and I thought since I had a digital camera in my possession that I would take some photos.
This is a photo of the extreme north end of campus, the now frozen coulee. I'm not sure if you can see the gentle snowfall, but yes, it is snowing again today. Ha Ha. It snows everyday for about an hour or so but it is not enough to accumulate on the ground.
Awesome.


This is the main building on campus, the one with all the power, Twamley Hall.
They have a decent cafeteria on the top floor with a beautiful view of the west end of campus (it overlooks the southern part of the coulee, the campus chapel, the art museum and some open space).
We have eaten over there a few times and while I enjoy institutional food (fondly remember the food at St Johns and other places) it is food that sticks to your ribs (and has taste, maybe not a whole lot, but you never leave hungry).


This the building where my office is (I actually teach in the building just to the north which is just to the left in this picture), Gillette Hall.
It is nice.


This is my view from the front of Gillette Hall.
This statue reminds me of something. I'm told that at least once during the academic year I'll come to school to find it wrapped in Saran Wrap.
That will be awesome.


This is just another view of my goofy office.
It's fine. When I'm done with this I'm going to eat that banana and box of raisins. Yup, I'm pretty exciting sometimes.
Also, that shoebox is my candy dish for students or other visitors. It is candy that we got at the Goose Festival Parade (we filled up the misses' purse with candy, including one person who just poured candy in their) and the shoebox is one I got from my cousin Steve (it had all the Brewer Merchandise in it). I know what you're thinking, classy. That's me.
Ha Ha Ha.

Photo Collection #1

So I was loaned a digital camera for the the event my class is doing this weekend.
I thought I would try it out today to figure it out (like earlier when they did not have a memory card in it and I could only take 25 pictures, but now with card, 255 pics).
This is a picture of my desk. Go Crew (thanks Steve).


This is my class taking their Friday quiz.
I softened and today was the first (and only) day I told them they could use their textbook. Not sure how I feel about this but I did it.


The brand new parking garage the built on the east side of campus.
I mainly included it to show the UND logo.


The entrance to the Greenway in downtown Grand Forks.
The federal government ordered the towns of East Grand Forks and Grand Forks to turn the heavily flooded areas of town into recreation areas (and thus they can be flooded and flooded to their hearts content and have and will be for eternity).
The Greenway is pleasant to bike, not so much to walk (walking it is okay, but I like to walk on dirt paths in a more quiet setting, biking I love to do among people, cars, obstacles and what-not).


This is a picture looking east from Grand Forks over into East Grand Forks.
12 years ago this would have been a picture of a neighborhood with a bunch of homes.
Today it is a greenspace and just to the left a boat launch.
Our home.

Class Activity

So the goof-ball class I teach is having their group/class project this Sunday.
The class choose dodgeball. All I ever did was tell them that they needed to do something and everything they have choose or done has been their choice (they totally ignored my day one advise which was to "keep it simple", ha ha, dodgeball). I have sat back let them have 3 to 5 minutes in class (usually twice a week for the past month) to discuss their event.
Today was awesome. In any group situation one person steps up and does most of the work. My one student who took charge is tired and just about snapped at the group as we had our 'walk-through' today (which took place after our weekly quiz, love the weekly quiz, it is the reason the students come on Friday, ha ha).
Sunday should be awesome. A true learning experience for them and me.
Love it.

Walking

So I cross this bridge everyday I walk from the goof-ball apartments we call home to the office they are letting me use this semester (the misses says it is a very nice office, the best part is that I have windows that face south and I get sunshine when the sun is out and when the weather was not so cold, I could open my windows and let in the fresh air). While all the leaves are gone and some landscaping has torn up the lawn, it is a lovely place to walk through.

I have been trying to walk everywhere I go for the past week (with the exception of last night when the misses came and picked me up somewhere and then we took a short drive). It is about 15/20 minutes from the apartment to the office, 45 minutes to the public library, 40 minutes to downtown, 15 minutes to the football arena, 10 minutes to the hockey place, and most importantly, 20 minutes to restock on beer (a place called 'Happy Harry's', all walks are measured in one-ways, which is important when it comes to judging if I might have to pee, one of my problems with walking in an urban area is that I got in the habit when I was in the Clemson Experimental Forest all last year was stopping to pee whenever I wanted since I was usually the only person in the woods, although I did have a few times when someone would come on me when I was in mid-pee and they would just say hi and scoot on by with both of us trying to not make either eye or groin contact, ha ha). One of the goals of walking is trying to remember what it felt like to walk everywhere and to try and maintain my current weight (just about everyone we meet tells us that we are going to put on 5 to 10 pounds the first winter since it seems like they expect newbies to shut it down in early November and get active again when winter ends in mid-May, ha ha, sob weep). So far so good (I weighed my self this morning and I'm proud to say that for the moment I'm no longer obese but just overweight according to the USDA, thank you government).

Whether the Weather

I continue to be amazed at the weather here.
It has snowed everyday (not hard but today it is a pleasant falling snow, pleasant if you take away the 25 mph winds coming from the west, so if I'm standing on the east side of a building then yes, it is pleasant) but there is no noticeable accumulation of snow anywhere.
In about 15 minutes I'll walk over to the discount bakery place and try to buy some dollar bread (or if it is a lucky day, some bagels and raisin bread, ummm') and the during my walk I go on the bridge that spans the huge railyard on the south side of campus (seriously, it is pretty big and one of those places where they store railcars when not in use, but there is also a big substation here). The reason I mention this, is that when I'm at the highpoint of the bridge, I'm in one of the highest places in town and it is a place where I can feel the wind blow, the bridge shake when a bunch of cars go by and if the train is moving below, whoa, it seems like the bridge could go down any minute. Needless to say, I'll stand there for a few moments and look around. You can see about 15-20 miles to the west, downtown to the east, the university to my immediate north and the health complex and golf course to the south. During the right part of the day (usually for me sunset) or in a light breeze or snowfall it seems nice and GF seems like the place to be. It is also the place where I have almost been hit by bicyclists. So memories can go either way.


Last week I attended one day of the North Dakota High School Football Championships. This team (the Hillsboro Burros, only 30 minutes from GF) beat Williams County from the west end of the state in the 9-man final. What was fascinating to was the history of Williams County. Ten years ago, the two towns of Ray and Tiago had two separate class-A teams. Six years ago they decided to form one class-A football team. Three years they downsized from class-A to 9-man. We had heard on the bus tour we did at the beginning of the semester that many towns were in danger of losing their school systems. Previous towns that lost their school systems had started to disappear as towns and now townships and communities are putting up fights to stop the state from closing their school systems and sending their kids to other schools. Grand Forks has experienced zero population growth since 1990. Many parts of the state are experiencing population declines and despite the fact of gas discoveries on many western counties, these counties are not experiencing growth (single people move in, work the gas exploration or gas drilling, then leave or move with the exploration, the only people making permanent money off gas exploration and drilling are the land owners and the state, people who run hotels, diners & shops make a bunch of money for a limited time).
The communities of Ray, Tiago & the rest of Williams County came out on en mass. While the game was over by the end of the first quarter (Hillsboro was up 22-0 and driving for another score and WC had only got one first down) the crowd stayed positive and cheered like they won the game when the Firestorm finally scored in the fourth quarter. You could just feel like this was an important event and that the towns had shut down, came east and were going to have a good time (although, like the communities the team serves the result of the game came up like the lands and people who cheered for them, they were destroyed and left with memories).
It was an interesting story to see.

Back On It

Well I'm sort of amazed at how much it has already snowed here (to put this in context, we have seen more snow this month, November, then we have seen for three winters in Mississippi and South Carolina {well, outside that day we drove through Boone, NC, which was the coolest but we were short of funds and could not stay the evening}). It has gently snowed almost everyday for the past two weeks (some days it just seems to be falling out of nowhere) and while some days are windy (like today) some days it is just cold here (I think it has been freezing everyday this month, ha ha, sob weep).
Yesterday though was the best. I stepped outside to walk to my class and it was like being in a winter/fast food wonderland. The sky was full of those really big snowflakes (the kind that you almost want to have fall into your month, forgetting for a minute that they are probably loaded with leads, minerals, acid & other harmful particulate matters) but everything smelled like a french fry (or if you still hate the French, freedom fries, yeesch, sometimes we are the dopiest nation ever). There two or three (still uncertain) huge potato factories on the north side of town (about two miles from campus) and when the weather is right, the whole town will smell like a french fry. While this may seem weird (and it was the first time I noticed it) now it just adds to the uniqueness of living here in Grand Forks.

On a side note: the goof-ball class I'm teaching is in the middle of attempting their class project. Since we are recreation (and formerly leisure, but now to ride the current wave we are tourism) I have been taught that programming is at the heart of most things we do in this field. So, I wanted this class to 'do' a program/event. The class (with almost no input from me) decided to do a dodgeball one-day tournament. The event is this Sunday, so this week the class has been in various spots on campus to promote their activity (they also put the event on Facebook, which delighted my wife to no ends since that allowed us to look up a bunch of the class and 'see' what they are like, ha ha, some of them, well, I'm hopeful). I was in the student union for about a half-hour this morning and last night I sat in the student activity center (called the wellness center, this a place where the builders hoped students would come to get healthy, but in the year-plus they have been open, they have already closed the grill/food shop, stopped many of the health classes and now it mainly is a place where students go to work-out, it was like they didn't know what kind of kids go to school here).

Second side note:I just started reading a book about a cappella groups in the ivy league and how they battle for the national title held every year in Madison Square Garden. Nerdy, but fun, but serious. Mainly I'm reading this book to please my wife. At the end of the day, she has a hard time falling asleep to I have taken to reading aloud to her (it totally works, within three to five minutes she is out). I had been reading Karen Armstrong's The Bible but found myself reading longer then I wanted (lousy history of the bible). My fear is that I'll start reading this book and instead of falling asleep, she'll make me read even more and stay awake. Constant struggle.


So we went to second men's hockey game this weekend. We were invited to accompany someone who was on a date (yes, we were invited along as the comic relief). I told the misses right before we meet them, that we were 'on the clock' and needed to tell our most humorous stories. It helped that North Dakota was playing a school I do not care about (Alaska-Anchorage) and I started off the game with "I wonder which team represents the 'real' America". It got a smile and I knew that I had to up my game. I told a bunch of stories, told some humorous things (those periods between the periods can be long when there is nothing going on in the rink, although they do a couple of things which make me laugh: human bowling with a sled and a giant sling-shot, child chicken dance contest & skating cheerleaders) and the evening went well.
My favorite part of any UND athletic event is when the university plays this two minute video which explains how awesome it is to be Fighting Sioux. It is a hackneyed attempt to explain why the university uses 'Sioux' and why it is okay despite the Sioux nation wanting it to end. Pathetic. Even the students I teach, when asked about it sort of seem like it is a confusing message and that it covers the use of the logo and term, but that is does not justify it.
This place has some serious image problems.

Ha Ha Monday

So last night I sorta blew out the back of one of my teeth (it just crumbled away). Now I can not stop sticking my tongue into the hole. I'm hoping that the tooth is dead and that when they pull the tooth out it won't hurt.
I also find that when I'm done eating I have to suck the food back out of the hole. I'm pretty sure this isn't going to end well.
Ha Ha.

NPR Notes

So as I've indicated before, I'm sort of addicted to podcasts (at the moment I'm listening to Fox's 5 minutes news 'fair and balanced', followed by AP's college basketball update followed by some selections from the Economist) and a few regular favorites are This American Life and Wait Wait don't tell me.
So as I was listening to the Halloween episode of TAL and I heard something that made me cheer. They were interviewing people who had real-life 'scary' stories and they interviewed a lady who was attacked by a rabid raccoon.
The story was pretty bad (while being sort humorous, well the cruel part of me thought it was) as she detailed how this raccoon attacked her at the end of her driveway. Well, the story continues and she ends up saying "I feel like I was betrayed by nature. I thought nature was this place where I went for serenity and peace and now I only see it as a place where danger looms."
When I heard her say this part of me cheered. Now I agree that nature has been a place where I can go to have some quiet time or to do something athletic and fun (I always viewed my hiking as something I liked to do to get closer to nature while trying my physical self against the outdoors, I'm not sure that I wanted to conquer nature, just prove to myself that I could still exist on a physical plane), but I also never forgot that nature is a place where danger happens. While I may not be some wilderness survivalist where I could survive off the land, I could imagine how awful the land can treat you (I remember walking through the White Mountains and coming across the dude who broke his leg, we stayed for awhile and kept him company, but after the girl with him got cell service, they told us a helicopter was coming for him, yeesch, I guess it's cool and I guess i would want to be flown out but I have walked out after screwing up my ankle or hurting myself numerous times and it's more of 'I'm not a wimp' thing).
Deep down, it bothers me when people don't respect the power of nature and how the local creek or field is something I can take for granted since it is so close. Respect, I guess since I have walked around so often in the places I have called home that I feel in no way does the land owe me anything, it is my responsibility to be aware of my surroundings and learn about what to do if something happens.


This weekend's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me had my favorite 'lefty' moment as it concerns the recent Presidential election. During the first segment when they ask a caller about this week's news, they asked this lady about what individual told his children that they deserve a new puppy and she replied "I am honored to utter these words, President-Elect Barrack Obama" and the crowd erupted and Peter Sagal yelled out "Indeed!"
I was listening to the show as I was walking back from the office Sunday evening and I stopped and just savored the moment. The hair on my arms rose, I breathed in the cold air and it just felt great. I have feared that this all might be a dream but no. The whole show was the celebration of people who seem smart (or it just might be that the writers are smart) and believe in 'social' things (I mean, NPR is a public entity and survives because of government aid).
Another awesome feeling from a week of awesome feelings.

Election Day Duties

Well I waited a few days to blog about this, but here I go.
This past Tuesday was pretty awesome. However, for weeks/months leading up to Tuesday I just could not let myself believe that we as a society were going to elect Barack Obama as President of our country.
I spent countless hours this past summer talking to people about the direction of this country and trying to dissuade myself from believing that we would choose hope and promise over fear and terror (and I kept telling myself that maybe this was a battle of 'good versus evil'). So after visiting some friends in Minneapolis I knew that I couldn't sit around on Tuesday, vote and thus just wait for the election results. So I went and volunteered to work for Grand Forks county as an election official (actually I became 'the' election aide runner for the day).


So I woke up early Tuesday morning (I voted early, in fact I had voted the previous Thursday and I even got to skip a part of the line because "yes sir, my address is the same as the one on my driver's license", awesome) and reported to the Grand Forks County Courthouse. I went to meet Debbie, our county Auditor, and she quickly explained my duties for the day ("we tell you to go somewhere with something and then you go there with that", thank you North Dakota simplicity). Debbie and her staff were in high spirits and Debbie immediately left with someone else to get the machine working at one of the sites (North Dakota uses the ballot where you fill in your choice with a black pen {fill in the oval completely} and some people were voting but they could not feed it into the machine and thus their votes had not been counted). So Debbie took off and her aide Maureen got a chair put it next to her desk and told to have a seat, get some coffee and wait (at this point I asked if I could go out and get my book out of the truck and read while I waited and so I went back to the truck and had to decide if it was wise to read Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail by Hunter S. Thompson in front of the voting bosses, I choose to read the local paper instead).
I chit-chatted with Maureen and listened as she started to receive the typical call of the day ("Hello Taxes and Finance this Maureen." pause "Where do you live?" pause "Do you know your Township?" pause "Please hold" now yelling into the room "Does anyone know where {address} should vote?" someone yelling back or someone telling Maureen to look on her address sheet, which as the day went on she started to remember that she had one on her desk and the yelling went away, "Hello, you vote {place}" pause "Yes, you should find the polling station there" or "Why yes, there actually is a polling station there." it was awesome).
At approximately 8:34 AM I went off on my first run of the day. In North Dakota you can vote without ID but you need to sign an affidavit that you live where you say you do (the canvassing of the election ends either tomorrow or Tuesday and then the actual election process will be over) and that is what I ran for my first run (comically to my polling station I would have used if I had not early voted).
Grand Forks has 43 polling stations and I visited 22 during the course of the day (items delivered: light bulb, paper clips, affidavits, envelopes, some electrical device, pens, and absentee lists). My favorite part of the day was when I got back from an afternoon run and they had the absentee lists ready for delivery (there was a crew counting both the early voting results and the mail-in votes were being counted in that morning and what they did is enter the names into the computer and then they created lists for district polling inspectors to check to see if people were voting twice). One pile was for the north side of town and the other was the south side. One of the other secretaries was to be the other runner and I told her to pick which side of town she wanted. She said the north side (because her mother was working at one of the stations and she wanted to check on her) and so I went south (I checked my self from doing a 'southside').
In my travels for the day I got to see all the goofball spots the county choose to have as polling stations (I had the process explained to me and I would repeat it, but it got boring and I sort of tuned out). I saw polling stations at all the usual places (grade/middle/high schools, the county transportation building) and at what I thought were unusual choices (the county electrical co-op, many different churches or places of worship {my favorite was the Assembly of God since it was tiny and it was the place where I saw the longest line of the day, eight people}, two hotels/motels {one called the c'mon inn}, and even the shabby mall in town {the one connected to the Kmart and this one was great because while the county runs the election, the city decides who the inspectors are and the person running the station at the mall had never run an election and Debbie was concerned that the person running the station would leave at the end of the day and forget to bring the ballots to the county courthouse and "Shit, we could have the whole darn thing held up and have the ballots sitting there, locked up, with no way to retrieve them until tomorrow."}.
My favorite part of my job was getting my supplies then gently reminding Maureen that I did not know where that place was and so by midday she started remembering to show me where everything was on the official town map (which was located in the copy room). I also got to help set-up rooms for the end of the day count (where everyone came to accumulate all the ballots by station) and would always ask questions like "how much does this machine cost?" or "wow, how late will you be here doing this?" (answers: "a lot" and "I hope we are out of here before midnight", I also got to hear about the last two presidential elections and I forget which year but one of them they were there until three in the morning and had to be back by eight to open the office for normal business the next day, I was told no-one gets vacation during these periods because Maureen told me that while this exciting and fun, she would gladly take vacation if she could, ha ha).
My overall impression of the day was one of normalcy. None of the staff seemed like they did not know what to do or what needed to be done. I was so happy with the process. They let me leave at about 5:30 and Debbie told me I was a great help with the day (my patriotic duty made me feel good).
I went home, had a beer and sat down to watch what I hoped would be history. The misses got home shortly after I did and then she left alone to watch cable news.
An overall awesome feeling overcame me and I fell asleep shortly after midnight.
Maureen promised that if I'm here for the next election that she would see if I could be an inspector and run a polling station (which made me infinitely happy).
Yeah for democracy.

St. Micheal's

Ahhh' church.
The misses and me have been spending Sunday mornings traveling around the area and sorta picking a church (one week its her choice then it's me, this was my week). Last week we went to the Church of Christ (which is her church from her childhood) and this week it was St Micheal's on Grand Forks north side (okay, this is a pretty small town, however it is neatly cut in half by the railroad so there is definite sides to town, the north side has the university, the potato factories and poor people and the south side has the commercial stuff and the expansion).
The pros: most diverse crowd we have seen at church since we can here (many kids and families and people from all walks of life), loved the fact that women are in positions of power (women were readers, helped with communion and the collection of the cash, this is something that bothers me when we go to other churches, when little boys are put in positions of power and women are regulated to make coffee and donuts, that is a reflection on how they want to see society as a whole), I loved the building and all the art, I loved the chorus and organ (the Church of Christ doesn't have either of these, plain buildings and no organ, however I'm always impressed by the singing in the COC, have not left disappointed by the songs and singing) and lastly I loved the message. The priest talked about death and forgiveness and the love we want to feel for others (also referenced "love thy neighbor" which I believe is the core message of Christianity, but I'm not a scholar, the COC had someone talk about their war stories and how people found Jesus in war and why that was important while stressing that the Christian message was important and I left thinking it was a war message, did I mention how we believed that audience in the COC may have been full of military/air force personal).
Cons: while I love ceremony I can understand why Catholics fall in line with things (it was a rigorous structured program, stand, kneel, not really sing with choir, move forward) again I love ceremony and ritual but the Catholic Church does not seem to encourage independent thought (every time we participate in a COC session I usually pick up a Bible and some other academic book within a few days, last week I read through a part of a history of Christianity and the some readings by Hunter S Thompson, there has to be a connection somewhere), also I'm not sure strangers are welcomed at St Michael's (but there was about 250 people packed in there), and it was hard to not miss the "life" message being promoted (this would not have been too unusual except for the presence of military personal, two young privates marched up the offering in this weird "hey, there's two army ladies in the house" moment that took away the sense that we were in church and not in the middle of an occupation).
Overall, I enjoyed the show, the pomp and ceremony and the sermon. The crowd was interesting and people dressed up in many different ways (some people wore their tightest jeans, others wore khakis and collars, others wore anti-abortion messages).
It will be worth a repeat visit before Christmas.