The beginning and the end of a phase in life

This past week was the beginning of a new school year, which marks the concluding year of the 2-year Higher Education Student Affairs master's program at IU.

This semester load wise is fairly relaxed. I have two classes: a required course on environments and cultures and an elective course on Gender, Education, and Development based out of the history of education department. The first course, which will be referenced as GAP or Environments in posts to come, has a large research project that concludes with a presentation on my birthday. The positive about it being on my birthday is that when it is done, I should be done with classes for the semester and can enjoy the rest of the day :-) The class is currently in the process of defining groups and then defining topics within the group. Though I currently am part of a group and really hope that it will remain this way, there is the potential next week that groups will be asked to mix-up a little in order to even out group sizes.

As far as Gender, Education, and Development, aka gender or history, the understanding of this course is still out there to be analyzed. Definitely need to get into some readings and get a fill for the class to see how it is going to progress. There is several assignments throughout the course of the semester with a group project due at the end.

That is the update on the new school year.

Other quick notes: I finally got setup with internet and cable access, after a long ordeal and three different installation appointments. So far the service is good and channel options and equipment at this price is better than Insight last year. Interested to see, how much I am actually going to have to pay the first two months. The first month of cable was suppose to already be free with the package deal and supposedly, I am getting the second month free as well after all the trouble I had to go through. $130 savings potential :-)

More to come soon.

****Movie Suggestions Needed****

Last weekend, I signed up for NetFlix, 2 free weeks of movie rentals. I know many of you have suggested movies in the past that I need to watch, but my brain has not retained that information. So please comment with any past or new movie suggestions that you have. I have about a week left. We will see how many movies I can watch btwn now and then.

Update: Still no internet but hopefully by this time tomorrow the tech will be back at my apartment and able to hook it up. More to come this weekend.

In Bloomington...No Internet

Just thought I would make a quick update. I am safely in Bloomington. I arrived on Wednesday evening, sometime after 8 pm. The only catastrophe that I have found thus far is two cans of sprite exploded in the boxes and leaked all over the floor. Still working on getting the box imprints off of the floor and need to mop the entire kitchen again.

Thursday was spent putting everything up and plugging everything back in. Nothing to stressful. Yesterday, I spent at HESA orientation and then at IU Freshman/Transfer Orientation Training, which I will be working Sunday and Monday.

Today has turned out to be a very disappointing day. I woke early awaiting the arrival of the AT&T installer. He arrived at 8:45 am not bad, but proceeded to have issues with installing my internet and cable. Apparently the setup the install incorrectly in the computer and when he called to get that fixed, they could not resolved that I could even get service. He has installed service with others in the complex so its not that but the system is a mess. So who knows when I will actually be getting internet and cable service in the apartment. :-( I was not excited especially after getting up early on my Saturday. I tried Insight but they couldnt setup service til next Saturday as well so hopefully this will get squared away and by sometme late next week I will have service.

That is the quick update. Once I get service at home, I will post again. Stay cool!

Summer is Over and School is Here

Well, the weather does not show signs of the end of summer, but the beginning of school and work does show evidence that summer is winding down and fall is approaching. Most of my things are packed up except the computer. By this time tomorrow, I hope to be at my friends L&J's with a fully packed car ready to head to Bloomington on Wednesday evening. It has been wonderful to be back in Kentucky this summer. I apologize to anyone that I was not able to see and for those I did not see enough. Summer went by a lot faster than planned, and I was not able to accomplish all that was planned. I still had a ton of fun with everyone that I was able to hangout with.

From Wednesday until sometime Saturday, there will be no internet at my place of residence so that is why you will not hear from me.

Enjoy the rest of your week and I will catch you all from the land of Hoosiers shortly.

Accident w/ No Injuries - "Move It"

Found the above link on WKYT. Apparently as of July 1 if you have an accident on the interstate and no one is injured, it is law now to move your car off to the side of the road and call police. This is to keep traffic moving and reduce the risk of secondary accidents due to traffic congestion. Look for the new signs in your area soon.

I'm Drained

Wow, this has been one crazy and insane day. It began by being awakened at 7:45 am with the cleaning crew in the dorm. I am so glad that the cleaning crew did not start before eight while I was in college. Even though I was usually up by 8, it would have been nightmarish. Today was worse because they were cleaning all the rooms to prepare for the beginning of the school year, including the other room attached to my bathroom and the bathroom. So I gave up trying to sleep anymore and got up.

Then the rest of the day included accomplishing a dozed things, none of which were really related to the other.

:-( Paid a credit card bill from savings, except I couldn't do it online and I didn't have 75% of the info I needed to take care of it. Thankfully the credit card company was very helpful and actually contacted the back to get the necessary info, plus he waived the fee for paying via phone. It was a nice jester especially since I couldn't pay via savings online.

:-) Scheduled for internet and TV hookup for Aug 18 back in Bloomington. :-( I will be in town a couple days prior to getting internet access, so that is what happened if I forget to mention it again next week.

Hoping that the internet and TV service is of good quality. I don't know how many of you have heard about the new AT&T U-Verse, but its basically a TV and internet package through AT&T. It actually is a pretty nice deal compared to Insight. I get a DVR receiver and a regular receiver for my 2 TVs, plus internet hookup. 190 channels, I believe, which includes the new Big Ten Network (I am pretty sure). Insight is not carrying that channel yet. All for $74 plus taxes and such I am sure.

I was paying right around that last year for Insight with one receiver, no DVR, and fewer channels. Not that I necessarily need that many channels but still. I will report later on the service and setup. Supposedly a 5 to 8 hr setup, but thats probably quote for a house. I just have a 2-bedroom apt.

Straightened up the room and tried to get things organized for the very soon approaching departure back to Indiana.

Had the key lock on my room door changed so I had to figure out about getting a new key to my room. Thankfully, I was hear when the guy changed it and so I new that it happened. It would have been quite fun to come in this evening to a door that I couldn't get into.

Trying to get details about helping with IU orientation and registration upon returning next week. I was asked to go fill out papers on campus asap :-|. We will see what happens with that.

The rest of the day was working on my internship project. The final project is putting together a resource guide for Bellarmine and all of the universities in Kentucky. It is coming quite along but still needs some work. We will see the status of the summer hopefully tomorrow.

Also been trying to figure out how to attend additional autocross events this fall, not having a ton of luck at that one.

Well that is the random happenings of my life today.

Completed Harry Potter

Thanks to a dear friend, I got my hands on a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was an enjoyable leisure read before schools starts in a few weeks. Now I must get back to the tasks at hand.

Departing Kentucky in about 1.5 weeks. It is hard to believe that the summer is coming quickly to an end. Hopefully, I can get a few last things completed and see a few more people before I depart Kentucky. Don't worry though, I will be hopefully returning at least thrice between now and mid-October.

Basketball Season Around the Corner

UK has published their 2007-08 Men's Basketball Schedule.

IU vs UK is scheduled for Assembly Hall in Bloomington, according to the UK schedule. I can't find that the IU schedule is posted anywhere and am still interested to see since the game is in Assembly Hall if it is part of the season ticket package. I am rather hoping so. As for those who thought I might be able to score an extra ticket, it is looking a bit slim, though I will see what I can do.

Why I Haven't Started Reading Harry Potter Book 7

This weekend, I was hanging with my friends and way too tired to start Harry. The plan was to read Monday afternoon upon returning to Louisville, but several things have happened since then. First was a new urgency to decide if I wanted to take my father up on a deal of wheels and tires. I am in the need of new tires and if they were going to come from my father, I needed to make the trip to Paducah this week to get them. This urgency has since subsided because the wheels he has wont fit my car and I can probably get tires for just as good of a deal here in Lexington. I have now decided that making a decision on tires in the next 12 hrs is not going to happen so I am done with this for another month.

The potential of going home Wed afternoon also made everything else I needed to get done a higher priority than Harry. Now that I am not going to be going home anytime soon, I can finally get to reading Harry.

So if you do not hear from me tomorrow, it is most likely because I have found myself a nice shady spot at a Louisville park to read Harry.

Fun Filled Week

The past week plus has been very busy with a lot of travel, but 100% worth it.

Saturday prior was the first of two trips to Lexington. This trip was short but sweet as I got to wish a good friend Happy 30th Birthday as well as wish him luck on his journey to Boston to pursue additional education. The party was full of old Georgetown folks that I had not seen in ages. It was wonderful to reconnect and touch base with everyone. I returned on Saturday night because Sunday was off to the races.

Sunday was autocross at Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium. It was actually my third trip to PJCS that weekend. Friday night, I helped the KYR folks setup the course for Saturday's head-to-head competition and enjoyed numerous runs with one of the guys testing the course out. Saturday, I stopped by briefly to check out the event before heading to Lex. It looked like a ton of fun. Then Sunday was the actual autocross event. It was the first event that I had participated in at KYR this year, and my first ever event at PJCS. The car refused to turn and though I had two good runs, I had three horrible runs, 5 cones, double DNF with a couple cones, and double tire lockup. Minus those runs, I did prove to be slightly more competitive than I have been this year.

Monday was a normal day in the office and so was Tuesday morning. Tuesday afternoon, it was off to eat ribs at Montgomery Inn in Northern Kentucky for one last time before my friend left for Boston.

Friday was back to Lexington for an extended weekend stay. I caught up with some old co-workers for lunch. Then met up with a good friend for a second trip to Cinci in a week, this time to watch the Reds vs Cubs. It was a great trip minus the fact the game started almost 1.5 hours later than scheduled. But thanks to the rain plenty of tickets were available and we got sweet seats right behind the Reds dugout to watch the Reds defeat the Cubs.

By the end of the night, I had the seventh book of Harry Potter in my possession as well. Having the first 5 in paperback, I wanted to get the last two books in paperback as well. That means having to wait for an extended period of time for the paperback version to come out. The person whom I borrowed book six from had not yet started book seven so I was anticipating a long wait before getting to read book seven. But my friend had just finished his book Friday morning and was kind enough to loan it out. Now I just need to find time to read it.

Saturday was a day of rest. I was exhausted from being out late Friday night and then staying up to talk to my friend whose place I was staying at. Saturday morning, we both got up about the same time and went for about an hour walk. It was nice to get out and walk and talk. Another one of our friends stop by to chat for a little while before the friend I was staying with headed off to a baby shower. I took a brief nap and headed to church. After church, I had a wonderful dinner at another friends house with her and her husband. We had a lovely chat and got to see our friend who was headed to Boston on Sunday one last time.

Sunday was another autocross event. Thankfully the rain stayed away during the event and we had a very successful day. I performed a lot better than previous and almost one a trophy. I was a little over .4 secs behind the second place competitor. I finally figure the course out on my last run. It just wasn't good enough to take over second place, maybe next time. One of the guys told me that someone else asked him if I had gotten race tires. He informed him that I was still running on the same old street tires, though they are almost bald. Sunday evening, I met up with a church friend for dinner and then crashed on the couch at my friends. She and her fiancee were in Cinci at an Opera.

Monday I returned back to Louisville.

Where are you on the web? Do you really know?

Yes, I have Google myself on numerous occasions to see what might be found on me. Shockingly, I have a fairly uncommon name and the majority of the first items are truly me.

But today I had a new experience, which I was not quite expecting. Minding my own business preforming research on leadership associations and organizations, I ran across an article on the International Leadership Associations website about Omicron Delta Kappa's Campus Leaders Today Community Leaders Tomorrow (CLT2) program. Interested to see what the article had to say, having been apart of the Alpha CLT2 class, I checked out the link. Low and behold it was not just an article but an article with pictures. There I was.

Now do you really know where you are on the web? Answer is probably not because some things are hidden (i.e. unlabeled), but still present. Who knows where you might run across a picture of yourself?

Opinion/Advice on Visual Programming Application

Help please! My dorkness, nerdness, or just stubbornness has hit its limit. I am in need of a programming tool to create a visual application for the Contact Database. The database has been created and data inserted. A few modifications have occurred from the original design and more tweaking is needed I am sure. There is definitely a lot more to contact data management than meets the eye, but we are getting somewhere. The problem now is that I have no clean way of inserting, updating, and deleting the data from the database. Since no one has come forward willing to do some visual coding, I must attempt to learn or re-learn how to program in some language in order to create a frontend application for the database.

Therefore the question is what should I try to tackle. Is anyone familiar with the Visual Studio Express items? Are these actually language apps to create true applications? Do they interact with the SQL Server Express? Any other suggestions or advice?

Electronics and Lightning: Are you prepared?

For those who wear their iPod or other musical device while running, you may want to read this article. Granted it can also happen with cell phones, jewelry, pagers, and other items with metal. The musical device and the wiring into your ears is much more dangerous than wearing a ring or having a pager on your side.

In addition to the dangers of lightning, there is the dangers of not being able to hear what is going on around you or paying appropriate attention to that around. For example, a kid was talking on his phone on Sunday in Lexington. Had I not been paying attention to the fact that he was going to walk right out in the middle of the road as I sailed 55 down it. He and the car would have probably came into contact. A car on the other side also honked at him. I don't think he had any clue that what he was doing was unsafe. He was too busy chatting away on his cell phone.

Facebook???

Is it time to join Facebook? Those who have, what has been your experience? I keep learning about more and more ways to communicate and find others and am strongly complicating taking the plunge and joining.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Smaller Cities Lose Their Identity

Has Lexington really grown large enough to have suburbs? Especially suburbs that are really not attached to the city in any true fashion.

The following is quoted from an AP article on WKYT.
"The bus was traveling to the Lexington suburb of Georgetown for
a weeklong church camp at Georgetown College, Hale said."

When did Georgetown become a suburb of Lexington? The answer it hasn't, yet. I do understand that one day it may become more of a suburb of Lexington, but currently, there is nothing that ties the two towns together in close enough proximity to consider it a suburb. There is still a lot of rural land between Lexington and Georgetown, which unfortunately is quickly depleting, but not enough for Georgetown to be a suburb of Lexington.

What are your thoughts on the suburbanization of Lexington or other towns?

Suprise Success

Where have I been since I moved, putting the finishing touches and implementation into a surprise 60th birthday party for my mother. Thanks to my aunt K and mom's HS friend CT, the party went very successfully. Thanks to all of my friends who have listened to me stress about this for weeks now and try to finish summer school. All the stress and work paid off on Saturday night. Here are a few stories from the past few weeks (if you started reading early, you might need to go back there are now 5 posts to read top to bottom about this):

Mom Plans Own Party

Party plans were going smoothly except for making sure both my brother and father where going to be off from work, without telling them about the surprise. No, I did not trust my brother or father in keeping a secret, and the party would be the best success if it was a surprise. It is very difficult to surprise my mother and she actually likes to be surprised. Though I was not sure if she would like this big of a surprise.

Then my mom got a bright idea that she would put together who own birthday party. Apparently it is her friend CW fault for asking what they were going to do for her birthday. Mom didn't like the breakfast after church idea, so once she found out what time my brother was getting off work, she decided to invite family and friends to dinner with us. I received a call from my father saying, "just wanted to let you know that mom is planning to invite about 20 people to dinner with us Saturday night. Is there anything I should know or do?" I was in shock and not sure what to say or do. I eventually said "okay, sounds good, I'll talk to you later." Then I began frantically calling K and CT to see what they knew and what the plan was going to be. Luckily, mom after thinking decided not to call everyone herself and CT and K called friends and family, respectively. This reduced people being caught off guard when mom called. Most of the family had excuses for not joining us for dinner and most of the friends just came on out knowing the rest of the story.

The thing is it was not just for people to come out for dinner but afterwards everyone was going to go to our house for homemade ice cream and cake. Thankfully, we hadn't ordered the cake yet so we halved our cake and with some investigative work at SAMs Club, my aunt made sure that one cake was vanilla and one chocolate and changed our icing color to match the one my parents ordered.

The party was still ago with a little extra partying before. The next question would dinner last long enough but not too long. More to come on that later.

Hiding Out in Paducah for 40+ Hours

To pull off this party, I had to arrive at my aunts early to prepare all of the food. So Thursday around 5 pm, I departed Louisville, grabbing a few last decorations, and driving to Paducah. I arrived at my aunts around 7:30 pm CST and proceeded to go hide my car in my aunts friends garage until Saturday. While we were out, we headed over to another aunts to pick up votive candles and a big bowl for fruit. The rest of the night was spent playing cards with my mom's two sisters and a cousin. We stayed up until 1 or 2 in the morning. I am too old for this thats for sure.

Friday morning we arose by 9 to start preparing food. While I was in the shower, one of only 2 aunts that I had not seen yet came over with the youngest granddaughter. She was out delivering tables to the family from a yard sale. She had just left my mothers, probably a good thing she made that stop before seeing me.

After she left, it was time to start preparing food. I cut several big blocks of cheese until my right pointer finger was numb. I just didn't realize how much damage that I was doing to my finger. I then proceed to cut carrots, which my cousin was afraid I was going to cut my fingers off how I was doing it. I think it was actually safer than the other way because laying the carrots flat meant they could roll, but oh well. I did not cut my fingers or hand during the process so all is good. My aunt was making all the different vegetable and fruit dips. I then took over and worked on a dip or two myself while she did some chopping.

The next secret mission was to get a hair cut. Thanks to my friend RP, I actually had a good cover story for getting my hair cut. I was in a hair salon on Wednesday with RP to get her hair cut. But really I went home to my beautician and got a haircut. I will not spoil the surprise of how short it is just yet :-P We survived the trip to the beautician, who knew that it was all a surprise.

::::Side Story:::: So when I got home on Saturday, I asked my father if he noticed anything different. After mumbling and having no clue what I was talking about, he decided that my hair was LONGER. He just saw me in May. I informed him that it was not longer but shorter.

It was then back to the house to finish preparing food about all we had left was cutting veggies, making ham sandwiches, and preparing the croissants to be made up on Saturday morning. Saturday night, we enjoyed my favorite Chinese in town and played cards again until 1 or 2 in the morning.

Saturday, my aunt woke me at 7:30 am to get moving. We went and packed the beverages into the car and headed over to the KC Hall. Snag number two....we originally had the KC Hall from 8 am until 1 am, but they needed it for a funeral meal Saturday morning. This meant we were not able to get in until about 2 pm to start decorating and preparing the food trays and such. I therefore could not be at the KC Hall to decorate because I had to get home sometime on Saturday before my mother killed me for not coming in and staying too long. She already was not the most excited about the fact that I wasn't coming in until Saturday anyway.

We checked out the KC Hall and I gave my aunt ideas of what I think it should look like, though I was not overly worried with the people that were coming to help out. I knew they had good tastes and it would look just fine when it was all done.

Then it was back to my aunts to finish fixing up the sandwiches and making sure everything was together and ready to head to the KC Hall. Next secret mission was making sure mom thought I was leaving from Louisville. So about 10:30 am EST, I called to tell her that I was headed out and got a lot of grief for sleeping in and not moving too early. Though since it is normal for me not to move fast especially on a Saturday it was not a total shock, thankfully she was busy preparing for her ice cream and cake party to really worry about me the rest of the trip. I was prepared to tell her where I was on my journey if she did call though, but I didn't have to this time.

"Arrival" in Paducah

It was officially time to arrive home so after a shower. I packed up my belongings again and headed to get my car out of hiding. I took the back way over to the interstate, back to usual way that I go home, and on to the house. I arrived perfectly on time 3 hours after my "departure" from Louisville.

I walked in the door and upstairs to my room to drop stuff off. I knew at that moment mom had new clue about another party. The house was freshly vacuumed. There was candy dishes throughout the downstairs filled with nuts, M & M's, and other goodies. The cake had not arrived yet though, so I had to make a quick phone call to let the surprise cake getter that they couldn't go yet to pick up our cake. Dad left shortly thereafter and thankfully talked mom out of buying more fruit for her party. While dad was gone, my already warn out hands and arms were back to work stirring up the fixins for homemade ice cream while mom cut up the peaches.

The first batch of homemade ice cream went into the maker, and the all clear sign was sent to the party decorators to get the other cake. Two batches of ice cream were made, peach and banana.

Then it was time to get ready and head over to the Olive Garden to save tables for 22 people. I had the privilege of reserving the tables shortly after 4. Wow, now that was an experience in itself. The lady was not very cordial with me. I was unsure if we would or wouldn't have tables by 5 for 22 people. But after sitting there for awhile I decided that they were trying to clear out the back room for us. It was about 5:15 or so before we were seated, which ended up a good thing.

Birthday Dinner - Mom's Plan

Olive Garden was infiltrated with 20 people to celebrate a 60th Birthday. Three people in the room had no clue what was happening next, while the rest of the party new that there was another party to follow at the KC Hall.

The accommodations were not very good. They didn't slide any of the tables together so there was pockets of people sitting around all in the same room but still. Mom and dad were sitting at a table with several of the other women. A group of men set at one table and then there was a couple other tables of people. I set so that I could get take pictures.

The service on the other hand was a bit too speedy. We were eating shortly after 6 and the party wasn't suppose to start at the KC Hall until 7 pm. So after dinner, we had the waiters send Happy Birthday to her, and a couple of the ladies went out to their cars to get their birthday gifts to slow down the departure process.

The best gift was a hula hoop, which my mother graciously got out in the middle of the floor and showed us her ability to hula hoop, around her waist, arm, and neck. She didn't do too bad for being almost 60 (her birthday technically wasn't until Sunday). We proceed to open gifts and tell stories in order to keep the party going as close to seven as possible.

Another secret mission, half the cake was at the house and needed to get to the KC Hall. So my cousin and brother headed out to go "see my cousin's dog", not sure how that story went over but it did. They went and got the cake at which time my brother found out that he was headed to a party at the KC Hall and not staying at the house for ice cream and cake.