Monday, June 02, 2008

Off to Ghana in Three Days

For those who have not heard yet, I am finally headed to Africa after listening to great stories from friends and wanting to go visit myself. I depart for Accra, Ghana on Thursday, June 5 and will return to the States on Friday, June 20. The trip is through ACPA (American College Personnel Association), which is a national professional organization for college student affairs professionals. The cultural study tour includes visits to local universities to learn about the education system in Ghana. In addition, we will be traveling a large portion of the countryside and learning about the culture throughout Ghana. There are 12 individuals partaking in the trip and we will all meet up for the first time Thursday at JFK. It is a very exciting and wonderful opportunity. If time and access permits throughout the trip, I will try to post updates and stories. When I return and things settle down a bit, I will post more thoughts and stories as well as lots of pictures. Thanks for all the great advice and wishes for safe travel!

Life has been crazy and busy the last few weeks, months. I promise more to come on all of that soon. Until then hopefully, I will post a few times about my trip to Ghana while I am overseas. Have a wonderful June!

Monday, April 21, 2008

Update: 4.0 Earthquake Monday Morning

Update: This mornings earthquake has been downgraded to a 4.0. For more information, check out USGS.

Were you jolted out of bed around 1:40 am this morning or maybe slightly aroused unsure of what was happening? Well you might have just experienced another aftershock from Friday's earthquake. A 4.5 earthquake occurred at 1:38 EST. I was in the same location as the 4.6 on Friday morning, but this was was definitely not as strong or as long. The window shook, there was a slight movement of the chair, but that was about it.

I looked at my friend SF in disbelief.
She asked "what was that, an earthquake".
I said "I believe so. It sounded just like the other day and it definitely wasn't wind blowing through the window because the sliding door is open."
After vigilant monitoring of the USGS site, I finally saw a large red box pop up on the map and confirmed that we did definitely experience an earthquake/aftershock.
My friend was quite excited as she missed the previous two as she was in Washington state, where earthquakes are much more frequent.

If you have not paid attention to the seismic actions of the area, here is a quick update as of current reports on the USGS site:
Friday, 4/18/2008 (Date and Times in UTC: I will try to modify later.)
5.2 Initial Earthquake at 9:37 (5:37 am EST)
Followed by 10 aftershocks ranging from 1.2 to a 3.4 between 9:59 and 11:55
4.6 Second Earthquake/Aftershock felt at 15:14 (11:14 am EST)

Saturday, 4/19/2008
Followed by 4 aftershocks ranging from 1.3 to 2.8 between 3:05 and 16:55
1.7 Earthquake was registered 23 miles South of Sikeston, MO at 23:19

Sunday, 4/20/2008
2 aftershocks - 2.8 at 5:02 and 2.3 at 10:34

Monday, 4/21/2008
4.5 Third Earthquake/Aftershock felt at 5:38 (1:38 am EST)

Friday, April 18, 2008

5.2 & 4.6 Earthquakes - What was your reactions?

UPDATE: The first quake was 5.2. It was downgraded from the initial 5.4, but the largest aftershock registered a 4.6 not a 4.5 as initially noted.

Shortly after 5:37 am EST this morning, I was awakened by the sound of metal rattling by the window. My first instinct was its an earthquake. My second instinct should have been to find cover or at least not head towards the window. But yes, I went in search to feel out and confirm what was making all the racket. I found the jewelry box shaking and the metal handles banging on the side. As i quietened them, the closet doors began to rattle briefly before subsiding. Still sure that it was an earthquake, but not worrying too much else about it, I decided since I was up. I would make a restroom stop and then climbed right back into bed. I didn't necessarily sleep soundly the rest of the evening as I really wanted to confirm that my instinct was right and also curious where the epicenter was at and who else felt it.

Okay as I was in the middle of typing this post (11:16 am EST), when I began to feel another aftershock or earthquake not sure which or what the difference is. All I know is that my chair and desk was shaking. My window was rattling and my heart was racing. Again, I did nothing but sit in shock this time trying to synthesize what I was feeling. I really was not and am still somewhat in disbelief that I was feeling it again.

Yes, this second one was another earthquake registering 4.5 according to the USGS at this point in time.

USGS has reported 5 earthquakes around 2.5 since the initial 5.2 earthquake and now the 4.5 earthquake. Check out their website for more information. It is quite interesting to follow.

Did you feel either of the two larger earthquakes or any of the smaller ones? What was your first reaction? Have you ever experienced an earthquake before? Also curious who had earthquake drills as a child because this could explain your reaction?

Friday, April 04, 2008

Yes, I still exist out here

I apologize for posting basically nothing in the last six months. It has been a crazy, busy, and exciting past 6 months. The next 3 to 4 months are most likely going to be just as insane though more unknowing. Yes, I am still on track to graduate on May 3, 2008 with my master's. I am currently in the job search process and when I find that top job, I will definitely let you know. Currently, I am searching east of the Mississippi river and maybe a bit on the west side especially in Missouri. I have interviewed from New York to Missouri and down to North Carolina thus far. Classes are going great. I only have two this semester our capstone course and a counseling course. I have one major project left in capstone, a couple small papers, and a final to conclude the semester and my degree.

I have been doing a lot of traveling this semester to conferences, basketball games, and baby showers. It has been great to see many of you and look forward to seeing you again soon. I just returned from a trip to Atlanta, where I spent the bulk of my time interview for multiple positions across the country. I have also been up to Columbus, OH and of course down to Kentucky on numerous occasions.

Current exciting happenings:
- Many of my friends are due with their first child very soon and one any minute now. I wish them all the best and look forward to seeing the little ones soon.
- The job search is in full swing and there are a lot of exciting opportunities.
- Graduation is in 4 short weeks.
- Other exciting news to come.

That is a quick and brief synopsis of life today.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Remembering Dr Keon Chi

For those Georgetown College alumni and friends who may not have heard, Dr. Chi passed on Wednesday night from a car accident outside of the Kentucky Horse Park.

Local Newspaper Articles
Ex-Georgetown professor, dean is fondly remembered
Retired Georgetown College political scientist dies in wreck
Former Georgetown College dean killed in crash at intersection
Remembering Dr Keon Chi

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving & Safe Travels!

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday weekend and fun with family and friends!

Friday, November 16, 2007

A Month Later - Lots of Things Happening

Wow...this has turned out to be one crazy but fun semester. I will attempt to touch on some highlights of the last multitude of weeks, without boring you too much.

In five weeks, I have made 4 trips to Kentucky, 1 to Indy/Cleveland/Chicago/Indy, and 2 to Indianapolis. This is the first weekend in the last five weeks that I will not be leaving town, though on Wednesday I will depart for Western Kentucky for Thanksgiving.

Kentucky
* UK vs LSU Football game and Georgetown's Homecoming - Both of which turned out to be wonderful opportunities and experiences. I will post a picture or two of the game in another post.
* A couple from YAACK and two friends of mine got married on Oct 20 at Christ the King. It turned out to be a beautiful weekend for a fall wedding, and I was honored to be apart of the wedding as a reader. I am just thankful that I still had a voice on Saturday and was not too sick with a cold at that point in time. God was watching over everything.
* Halloween night provided a quick trip to KY for the Georgetown College vs University of Louisville basketball game. Thanks to a friend of mine who invited me to join her and her husband for the game. I was proudly wearing my orange and black in support of the Tigers. The game did not prove to be as exciting as the previous years but it was still nice to watch the Alma Mater and attend my first game in Freedom Hall.
* Last trip was to celebrate my friend Chris's 30th Birthday party. I had to make sure he rang his 30th birthday in right :-)

Cleveland (Indianapolis/Chicago)
* Between the wedding weekend and the birthday weekend, I attended a conference in Cleveland, Ohio. Travels took me to Indy with a return flight through Chicago. The conference was very small and different from other conferences that I have attended in the past. It was the History of Education Society and programs are base more on paper submissions with panel discussions.

The purpose of attending the conference was to present a paper on faculty governance. My previous supervisor, our spring practicum student, and I put together a paper on faculty governance at IU, which we then presented on a panel with two other papers on the history of faculty governance. The panel presentation went very well, except for unlike the wedding, the cold was a bit worse and affecting my voice. We received some good feedback from the panel discussant and others in the audience. I will update you more in the future on how things progress towards potential publishing of some of our work in the future. There are no guarantees at this time, but we are looking to publish a journal article somewhere.

Indianapolis
* Both trips were for the same reason, but instead of staying in Indy, I went with others back and forth last weekend for another conference. This conference was specifically for graduate students in higher education student affairs programs in the midwest. IU and our student personnel association was the host of the conference this year. A friend of mine was the chair of the conference and did a fantastic job of putting together a nice conference. On Sunday of the conference, I presented a program on leadership, which went fairly well though could have been better. It was definitely a learning opportunity and the start of what will hopefully be further program presentations on leadership.

This Weekend
* IU vs Purdue Football Game - Tomorrow, I will attend my first Big Ten and IU football game and tailgate. I did attend one other tailgate at the beginning of the semester but this will be my first full blown experience of Big Ten football. I am looking forward to it, as long as I get a few hours of sleep tonight.

Well there are some of the highlights from the past 5 weeks. I will try to post a few more stories soon.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

What a day?

Not sure where to begin with today, so I will just start from the beginning. The morning started out and is ending with a tornado warning. The morning did see a strong storm pass through, luckily the evening has not been too bad thus far.

After a few hours of work this morning/afternoon, it was off to an experience of a lifetime. Indiana University inaugurated its 18th President this afternoon with a formal event in the auditorium. It was a wonderful experience and I am definitely glad that I stayed around to witness the historical event.

After the event, it was back to the apartment to finish packing in preparation to head to Kentucky, and completion of a paper that was due Friday night at midnight. The paper is complete and turned in. Woohoo. Hopefully, I got everything packed into the car because if not it is too late now.

The real fun started on departure. I got into the car turned on the lights and began to drive away when I realized that I had no headlights. I got out of the car to assess the situation. Sure enough both front lights were out. I talked to my father and he figures they must have both gone out. It is very possible that I did not realize one had been out for awhile, because well I don't know the last time that I turned them on. The high beams worked and my father said that I could continue on my journey using the high beams. He warned me that people would not be happy, and I understood that. But what I did not realize is in their unhappiness they would be idiots.

Car after car flashed their lights at me and I really could do nothing about it. When I hit the interstate, I found unhappy people who were seemingly willing to risk having an accident to shout at me. Semi drivers must have definitely been talking and there was tons of them out on the road tonight. What bothered me is that after I passed, they would whip in behind me and flash their lights. One guy whipped in behind me and then almost ran me off the freakin road trying to make his point. There clearly was not space for someone to walk between his bumper and my bumper. On top of that I was about on the bumper of the car in front of me.

Since there were more vehicles around on the interstate and more lighting, I would turn off my brights momentarily to show them that I had no low beam lights. To some, I think they understood but too others, they continued to be jerks. I am just thankful that I finally made it safely to Kentucky and don't have to deal with the crazy semi-drivers anymore. No wander there are so many semi wrecks. They like to run people off the road if they are not abiding by their rules.

I actually had very little trouble, when I got into Kentucky, though I was on the road a lot less and with fewer cars to harass me.

Tomorrow, I will get new headlamps, new tires and wheels, an alignment, and who knows what else at this rate. My car seems to be slowly falling apart. Not really falling apart, they are all just normal wear and tear items.

Time to read a book for class or maybe just fall asleep until my friends get home.

Monday, October 15, 2007

UK Fans Stop Rushing the Field ???

UK has 3 hits against them according to SEC regulations that disallow fans from the football field. Is there a way to stop the rush? What happens this week with Florida in town? Apparently, each hit costs more and more money to the institution.

See the article on Yahoo.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

UK Wildcats - Football and Basketball

Basketball season hopefully will be as exciting as football season has been this year with both Kentucky and Indiana accomplishing grand things. The question is will I actually get to see the UK/IU game in person in my own backyard. The hype around Indiana basketball sent the students running for tickets this year, with over 9600 tickets being sold and only 8000 spots to seat them. Therefore, two games are going to be pulled from everyone's package. What two games will be pulled from my package? I just have to sit and patiently wait for another 2.5 weeks for the tickets to arrive in my mailbox. With my luck, I am preparing to not see a UK/IU game ticket in my package, therefore I can be highly surprised when it appears or less disappointed when it doesn't. This was truly my fear if the game was actually held here in Bloomington.

Brighter things, I do have two tickets to Saturday's UK football game against LSU, though in the LSU fan section :-) A grad friend and LSU alum had two tickets, the person previously going with her backed out and so I took his spot. Then she unfortunately found out that she has to have reconstructive surgery on her knee tomorrow and will not be able to attend the game. So she gave them to me to enjoy, and I am looking forward to having fun with a friend and enjoying watching the Wildcats defeat the Tigers.

This means that I might actually get to attend part of Georgetown's Homecoming, therefore not missing my first homecoming ever. Though, I will definitely miss my first Songfest at least since my sophomore year. Though I am pretty sure that I attended freshman year as well. I vaguely remember standing in line outside two years in a row before actually participating the last 2 years.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

UK Wildcats --- Kentucky Football????

Yes, it is true the state of Blue is coming alive around football and basketball has a lot of hype around it this year as well.

Check out the article at WKYT of the historical marks the Football Cats are making already this year and those are only a few of the marks going down and statistical changes being made. Plus the marks are in the positive direction, which is great for the struggling Blue of the SEC football powerhouse. Yes, it is still early in the season but they are definitely attempting to prove they have what it takes.

Now for the Louisville Cardinals, it looks like their hype is going downhill quickly. They have been the top story two weekends in a row, but neither of them good for them. I am perfectly okay with the hype last weekend with the loss to UK, but I would like to see the Commonwealth of Kentucky have overall strong athletic programs and good hype.

It was good to have at least one of three teams win this weekend. IU lost to Illinois as well this weekend, which I think is putting a question on 13 games this year. They have some tough games ahead, especially if Ball State's loss to Nebraska by 1 was no fluke.

Football may actually be exciting to watch in the area this year. And basketball is definitely on par for an outstanding year in the area. Not sure if it is up to some of the hype, but we will see.

Mentioning of basketball, I have put in for my season IU basketball tickets and doing a lot of praying that either only 7000 or less students want tickets or that I get the UK/IU game in my slimmed down set of season tickets. The word on the street is people are interested because there is talk of IU going to the Final Four. I expect a good team this year but not sure Final Four caliber just yet. We will have to see how the new team meshes. There was definitely a lot of change up in the off-season.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Water Shortage - Kentucky

Kentucky has been plagued with the lack of water for the entire latter part of the summer. I was just reading about the recent restrictions of water in Georgetown in particular. I found the following interesting though sensible:
"Serving water in restaurants, clubs, or eating places, except by customer request."

Very often the water that is brought out for everyone is not used, so it makes sense to only serve when requested. So if you are use to a restaurant automatically serving you water and they don't, it may not be the server but the lack of water.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Reason for Having a Landline

To my knowledge, I have been without phone service for the last 1.5 hrs. Who knows when I actually lost service, this is just when I went to look at my phone and realized there was no service. I rebooted the phone (oh how sad that I just wrote about rebooting my phone) and still no service. I have walked all over the apartment with no change and even outside on the balcony. If you tried to get a hold of me tonight, that is the problem.

Since I cannot make any phone calls, I went to the AT&T site to try to see how else I might get support. They have live chat rooms for technical support but by the time I got logged in with an allowable login, it was closed. Though my clock said I still had several minutes before closing at 11 pm. Oh well. I must go read and get some zzzzz's. Maybe I will have service tomorrow.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

NEED ADVICE ABOUT CRUTCHES

Yesterday afternoon, I received a call from the Dr. Of course with all the new HIPAA guidelines, she couldn't leave anything on my voicemail. The office was closed upon receipt of the voicemail so this morning I called back. Late morning, the Dr returned my call to tell me that there was a spot that she was unsure about. It was lucent. Digitalization of the xray showed more question of concern and the xray tech in Ft Wayne suggested getting an MRI. Therefore tomorrow morning, I am headed to the Indiana MRI office to have an MRI on my right foot. Apparently, the concern is that there is a stress fracture in my foot and the location is apparently very troublesome to the doctor that she suggested even without insurance that I probably should go ahead and get the MRI. If something happens worse, it would not be good.

There is some continuous pain in the area though nothing as bad as last Friday. I will admit that I have taken the hard approach and not used the crutches until this afternoon when I got home. This still has been extremely difficult to get use to and I have not managed up the stairs yet on crutches. If anyone has good advice about navigating stairs with crutches, please let me know. I really cannot remember how I did it 10 years ago. The only rememberance I have about stairs and crutches is the day one of the crutches slid all the way back down once I reached the second floor of Pawling Hall. Thankfully some young man walked in shortly thereafter and brought the crutch up to me. Otherwise, I remember nothing. Plus any advice on how not to get blisters on your palms would be appreciated as well, since they seem to already be forming :-(

Yes, I realize that I am getting old and falling apart. You do not have to remind me of this KP, CV, or anyone else who wants to chime in :-P

MRI results will take a couple days to return so more to come later this week or first of next week.

Monday, September 03, 2007

How to push through an injury?

The cool air on Thursday intrigued me to venture outside for some fresh air and a bit of exercise. It was a perfect afternoon for a nice walk/jog. I took off to the walking path and into a quite neighborhood. I thought all was going well. I jogged/walked for a little over 40 minutes. A consistent run of about 8 minutes occurred twice, along with a brief 3 minute run. I stretched and felt pretty good about things, until Friday.

Friday, I headed into campus to take care of some things and meet my HESA buddy for lunch. This required quite a bit of walking but nothing out of the ordinary. The pain in my right foot was excruciating. A couple times, I decided that I flat could walk no longer and waited for the bus to pick me up.

Today, I gave in and went to the health center to have my foot looked at. I feel like a wimp, but after thinking about it further, I realized that my right foot had been bothering me off and on all last semester at least. The pain was not a muscle strain or pull, but felt more like a possible bone fracture. Thankfully, it is not a bone fracture, though I wander if it would be easier to take care of if it was.

Diagnosis: There is a tendon from the leg/ankle that attaches to the bone on the outside of your foot. Apparently, I have damaged the tendon, but it has not pulled apart and damaged bone, at least not yet.

Treatment: Stay off of it as much as possible, ibuprofen for inflammation, and some ice.

How do you stay off the foot when you are on a college campus and everything requires walking? I was offered crutches, though not necessarily enforced to use them. I went ahead and took them, because if the pain is as bad as it was on Friday. There is no way that I will continuously make it from location to location on campus via foot. Definitely not a new experience being on crutches on a college campus, but I really hate crutches because a) its hard to get around with them b) everyone tries to sympathize and feel sorry for you. I hate drawing attention to myself, but at the same time, I really would like my foot to get better.

Apparently, this is not an injury that will heal quickly anyway. And if this is the same pain and issue, I was having last semester. It definitely is not going to be healing quickly.

What would you do? Be macho and ignore the crutches or suck it up for the betterment of the foot. Is it really for the betterment? I am usually hardcore, but as I get older, I have found myself a lot more cautious about injuries. I prefer to still be walking when I hit 40, which 10 years ago I said probably wouldn't be the case.

Friday, August 31, 2007

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.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

****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.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

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!

Monday, August 13, 2007

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.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

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.