Mundane Mis-Adventures

The last few weeks have seen several adventures and dramatic twists and turns akin to a cross between a primetime melodrama and an adventure-mockumentary on university study abroad offices.

1. Business Trip 1: Our London / Paris program has gotten popular, like super popular--25 students enrolled, popular. Since the program only has one faculty member it was decided an administrative assistant needs to go with. Since the advisor in charge of the program can't go, I was recruited. So I'll be flying to London in early May (5/5/10) to visit partners in Nottingham and London and then picking the group up at the airport on Saturday. I'm with them through May 15 and leave them at the airport in Paris. I then take a train up to Caen to visit our partners in Normandy. I should be back from Europe around May 19 or 20. On a plus side, I should have a free day between dropping the students off and meeting our partners on Sunday May 16... I may try to venture to Mont St. Michel which I've always heard was amazing.
   Mont St. Michel: The Island City


2. Business Trip 2: Word came to us that the director for USF Polytechnic's Service Learning Program this spring break to El Salvador had to drop out of the program. I'm a potential candidate to take over and lead the trip. I doubt I'm going (because I haven't heard and they leave on Saturday) but we'll see. I'm sort of hoping I don't have to.<


3. Business Trip 3: Last October I presented at my professional organization's regional conference in Knoxville. Our session was voted best of conference and so now we're taking it to nationals. I'll be in Kansas City, Missouri June 1 - 4. Right after my 29th birthday (Eeek!).





4. Personal Drama: That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger. We'll call it all a learning experience and move on from there. :-)


5. PhD Discoveries: I don't want a PhD in Educational Leadership. It's far too meta for me and while I enjoy the topic I'm just not excited about the research like I was with Human-Computer Interaction. At least I know this now.


6. House Fire: I came home after class last Thursday to find out that my neighbors' house caught fire. Only 2 rooms seemed to really be bad. At about 4am we awoke the the entire house ablaze. It seems the fire department couldn't get to the smoldering insulation the night before and the house reignited! Friday and Saturday I was off having a different sort of adventure and heard that the firefighter made a THIRD trip to the house to drench it after one of the walls started smoking. Crazy. Everyone is ok, their stuff is gone, but they're alive. Pictures of the 4am blaze and aftermath below.

About 4am when we were evacuated. Yes, that's my driveway next door!

This was about 5am when the 4th fire truck showed up.

By 7am the house was almost out but gutted by the fire the night before. You can still see parts of it smoking. Those embers would die down but later reignite and cause more smoke.

That about wraps my life up to this point. How are you?

Wrestling with the Wolf

When I was a teenager I heard a phrase used in one of my favorite TV shows. The phrase was “the Hour of the Wolf.”

The character, a stoic female lead brooding over the disappearance and possible death of two comrades, described it as:

"Have you ever heard of the hour of the wolf? ... It's the time between 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning. You can't sleep, and all you can see is the troubles and the problems and the ways that your life should've gone but didn't. All you can hear is the sound of your own heart."
– Susan Ivanova, Babylon 5 (Season 4, Episode 1)

According to an entirely un-cited entry on Wikipedia:

The hour of the wolf is the hour between night and dawn during which the wolf is said to lurk outside people's doors. In Swedish and Finnish folk religion it is the hour when most people die and are born.

I didn’t quite understand it. My teenage self had never had nights like that. Certainly, I had sleepless nights due to a nightmare or anxiety. Insomnia? Sure. But never feeling the weight of life as she seemed to describe.

I adopted the term though; I used it in fiction and in common parlance with people.

Since my teens, I’ve had a few nights like this. Now and then, around 2:00am my brain wakes me up. Sometimes it’s a growing anxiety that lulls me from sleep, sometimes it’s my body needing to use the bathroom but then sleep doesn’t return.

Last night I had one of these. I was awake around 1:30 or 2, running thoughts and images over and over through my head. My body refused to yield to sleep. I paced. I drank. I did whatever I thought might bring sleep, but my brain insisted on obsessing.

Eventually sleep came again. Maybe it was 3 or 4. Sleep came.

The morning after these nights I’m not so much tired as numb. No emotions, not really melancholy, just sober. I move through my day with limited emotional responses despite being perfectly aware of my surroundings and what I’m doing. I’m not in a daze or anything, I’m just not myself.

Everything takes three times the energy to do during these days. I’ve gotten stuff done, maybe more so than when I’m bubbling and joking—but I’m exhausted and drained.

I hope the wolf doesn’t visit me tonight.

Wicked Tonight

Looking forward to it. :-)




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Where are the good cartoons?!

I'm home sick today. *cough cough sad 'pity me' puppy eyes*

So I'm lounging in bed, unshaven, and unbathed. In a beat up pair of sweats, old Donnie Darko T-shirt, faded bath robe and socks that couldn't be holier if the pope himself wore them. I've got my cold meds, my OJ (well, Mango Peach V8 Splash) and a bowl of Fruit Loops- you know what's missing? Cartoons. Good cartoons.

I'm flipping channels and you know what? These shows blow. Where's the bloody adventure?! Don't market a card game to me, give me entertainment! Give me pathos! Give me something to spur my imagination!

Remember Disney's Gummie Bears? Sure, there were some sugary moments meant to teach lessons, but there was character growth and pathos: When Cubby gave up on his dreams to something that was important to Grammy. When the rest of them decided it was better to sacrifice themselves / be lonely forever than endanger the rest of the species in far flung places. Sure there was some made-for-kid moments, but there was something deeper there.

Remember Gargoyles?! Man that show flipping rocked. Sure I was in middle-school by the time that show hit the air-waves but the sheer artistry of that cartoon, the darkness, the emotion, the seamless blending of mythology, literature, and an all star cast of voices? Damn skippy that was good.

Ok, so both of these shows have a certain theme in common. A mythical/fantasy species on the brink of genocide normally due to human interaction, not forced to live in shadows still trying to fight for the values and traditions they believe in. That's pretty intense. I don't care if you're 5 or 50, that is a timeless theme, and when mixed with excellent story lines that is some pretty killer entertainment.

Looking for a little environmentalism meets adventure? No no no, not Captain Planet. How about Pirates of Dark Water!?

Let's see what we have now...

Flapjack

...WTF? This is what my nephew was watching today.

Ok ok ok, Avatar The Last Airbender is pretty darn good. But Still! I want my good cartoons. :-(

/whine

Ok. Speaking of Avatar, I just saw the preview for the movie... looks pretty friggin sweat!

The Role of the Academy

Academia is in a state of identity flux. The institution itself seems to be challenged at all levels to keep up with the pace of globalization. I feel that the same external forces the academy is meant to question and monitor are those aiding in its progressive identity crisis. I fear that most public institutions are falling pray to ideological winds that boil the duties of the university to economic and financial concerns alone.

Many might argue: "What is the university for if not for preparing our students to enter the 'global' work force and become productive members of society? Isn't that why people go to get degrees? To improve their chances in the job market?"

By asking that question alone, you have already adopted the paradigm of the corporation and not the academy. The purpose of knowledge in this view is distilled using the language of economists, whose soul purpose is the study of finance and the impact it has. If you believe without question that the acquisition of wealth is a panacea for the world's ills, that it is an automatic guarantee of happiness and well-being, then the logic of the above statement makes perfect sense.

Indeed, in university administrative offices around the world, I am sure the discourse of education has taken on more commonalities with corporate boardrooms than faculty meetings. Concerns over the bottom-line, over alumnae donations, over limitations in tuition prices is an understandable concern: you can't run an institution on idealism alone. However, I feel like treating education as a commercial product cheapens what it is.

I would counter the argument that education is purely for financial gain by saying that it is about understanding, self-betterment, self-actualization and not just about getting a high paying job after your graduate.

I would say that the role of the academy is to:

• Facilitate the acquisition of knowledge in a holistic sense, as independent as possible from bias
• Help students develop critical thinking skills to analyze the world around us
• Aid in providing meaning and a context to what we know, learn, experience, perceive
• Promote a sense of social cohesion within society by examining ethics, science, governance, and law through the lens of recorded human experience
• Discover advancements that benefit the world (humanity and the environment)
• Preserve our collective understanding as a species and continue the evolution of the discourse of what we know and how we understand it
• Call into question and understand the actions and motives of agents in society (government, religion, media, corporation, social movements, academia, etc.)

These I believe are the duties of the academy. We as humans have a natural tendency to question and seek to understand the world around us. From grand ivy-covered palaces of knowledge to tribal elders telling stories, Stainless steel labs to artist studios: It is for this purpose that the academy exists as a fundamental institution of society, regardless the form it takes.

While I agree, that the increased intensity, extensity, velocity and impact of global interconnectedness(1) has agitated government concerns of global competitiveness (both of national economies and individuals) we loose our objectivity as academics when we get drawn into the the world according to the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) instead of questioning it. It is not for these agents to frame the nature of our existence, but for us to question theirs.

I close this entry of my blog by offering a quote to those that look at students and see a labor market instead of world citizens. It comes from the report of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century to UNESCO, Learning: The Treasure Within.

"There is every reason to renew emphasis on the moral and cultural dimensions of education, enabling each person to grasp the individuality of other people and to understand the world’s erratic progression towards a certain unity; but this process must begin with self-understanding through an inner voyage whose milestones are knowledge, meditation and the practice of self-criticism."

1. My favored definition of Globalization - Held and McGrew: http://www.polity.co.uk/global/globalization-oxford.asp

Damn you FOX!

So much for my boycott of FOX broadcasting for being douhebags. Rupert Murdoch is an utter tool for what he's doing and I don't like it... But... But...

Damn you FOX! Damn you and your irrisitably entertaining programming!! Sigh... I bought it. I'll most likely buy the season 1 DVD when it comes out all together.

Reverberated Voices

Tonight I had the absolute pleasure of watching a friend of mine (Jared O'Roark: www.jaredoroark.blogspot.com.) perform his one-man show. I can honestly say I was blown away. I’ve had the pleasure to hear much of his poetry, to see him perform monologues and snippets of characters at parties and gathers, even been privileged to hear him reading of half finished works while his creative energies were still being channeled, but what I saw tonight was just incredible.

8 distinct characters with lives and stories that seemed to intermingle on stage into a sort of proto-person, encompassing aspects we all have inside of us. Yet as the play closed and he paid homage to each character it felt like I was saying goodbye to friends I’d known all my life. I will admit that on more than one occasion I misted up- which a) for me to do and b) for me to freely admit should speak volumes of what was performed on stage.

From the snotty prep school girl to the old WWII vet finally getting his tribute it was impossible for me not to see myself in everyone of them and feel intimately connected with them. I think my favorite was a five year old boy with an understanding and idea of God and creation that is moving beyond words. I felt inspired.

I would go into more details but I’m tired and my fingers are clumsy. Frankly any attempt to really describe what it was in this format would really sell it short. What I can do is hope and encourage him to perform it again someday. It really was something to see.

Getting all organized

My class last night was too cool. It’s called Globalization in Higher Education and centers around the impact of globalization on higher ed and what changes may occur in the future; fascinating stuff!

While I’m the only non-PhD candidate in the class I feel like I actually have something to contribute just from applied experience working in the Education Abroad Office. Half-way through the class we introduced ourselves and we had to list our international experience among other things—while I may not the intense research and pedagogical theory that the others have, I realized I’ve spent the last 8 years become a subject area specialist just through practice. I think this is going to be an excellent course. Since I’m only taking one, I think I can keep focused and organized despite all the other stuff I have going on at work.

Organization is going to be key in the next few months. In addition to loads of reading and research I’m going to have to do for this course, I’ve picked up some of the more time consuming elements of a vacated position in our office. I was originally entertaining the idea of taking this other position (which would have been a sizable a pay raise – haven’t had one of those in about 3 years) but it really removes me from student interaction and tosses me deeper into the land of red-tape. While I’m sure I’d love working more closely with our Dean’s office, I’m going to stick to study abroad. Still, until the position is hired, I’m taking care of the Florida France Linkage AND all international agreements between USF and the rest of the world. Time consuming is really just a nice way of saying it, I think I spent nearly all of yesterday back and forth with one of the regional campuses and General Counsel, but honestly I know that these agreements are going to make a difference in the lives of at least 7 students, so it’s worth it. :-)

I’m helping organize some content for Dr. Mark Orr’s memorial service on the 2/1. He had such and amazing life, I think I’ll speak more about that close to 2/1.

I’m also helping organize our students to impress a visiting international delegation from INTO, which is some huge consortium of universities.

Oh! I also applied to teach in the fall. If I get accepted, I’ll go more into what that entails.

I'm also merging my internet presence. Next step, my twitter account now has the same name as this blog. You can follow me by clicking on the right of the screen OR search for @daidaloslost

Ok, lunch is wrapping up! So back to work I go.

There and Back Again

This is such a great and slightly emotional time of year. My students who were abroad last semester are all returning to campus and dropping in to make sure everything is set for them to restart life at USF.

This is when I get to hear how they enjoyed their time, what their experience was like, and see first hand how much their exchange changed their lives. I’ve seen shy and nervous students become confident strong individuals and I’ve seen adventurous souls expand their horizons beyond their imaginations. I feel so lucky to have played a part in that, in shaping this new and wonderful person I now hardly recognize.

Sometimes the return is harsh, students experience reverse culture shock as intense as friends and family try to force them back into the tiny shells they left behind months before. Like culture shock to a new environment, they feel alienated and out of place, but it’s almost worse with reverse culture shock because now they feel like an outsider in the place that they once new as home. But with time they adjust, adapt, and continue their growth—but never revert. It can be painful, but they have a support network that’s here help and I’m proud to be part of that group of people.

The mantra study abroad advisors often use is “Changing the world, one student at a time” and it’s really true. I have post cards and letter written by students in my desk that I take out to read when the stress of bureaucracy, misunderstandings, or other issues get to be too frustrating. It helps to remind myself why I’m here in the first place.

“Changing the world, one student at a time”

Snow! ... well, ice.

Everyone kept saying "Snow in Florida! Snow in Tampa!" For this weekend. There was a mixture of terror, disbelief, and wonder at the prospect.

We just got freezing rain instead. Hasn't snowed in Florida since like 1977 or something like that.

However, there has been lots of ice on my car in the mornings. See below.

If it didn't make my fingers freeze I'd play with it every morning.

The first day it happened I scraped it together and made a mini-snowball- it was über mighty! I threw it against the wall and felt all nostalgic and stuff.

However, now that it's a morning routine it's getting a little old.

There, I've complained about the weather like a good Floridian. Before anyone says "You want to know what cold is? What snow is? Come up here!" I'd like to remind you that unlike northern places, we don't have the infrastructure, experience, and equipment to deal with the cold properly. You may be used to jumping in the pool at 70ºF, but we're used to swimming pools as warm as bath water and 98ºF in the shade "nice" spring days, so 28ºF is a stretch for us! Also, all my jackets except the UK collection are made for Florida weather not 28ºF ! So there.

You people in the Frozen North™ have my sympathies.

A Fashionable Night Out

So 80s fashion returned with a vengence over the last few months and I've had mixed feelings about it.

80s Cartoons? AWESOME. 80s toys? Great. 80s fashion... eeem well, ok.

Some of it is cool, but a lot of it was crazy. A girl came into my office a few months ago with a side ponytail, Gem earrings, and a shirt that looked like it belonged on the wall of The Max from Saved by the Bell. Her birth year? 1990. Ouch.

Anyway, I was at a the Czar (a club in Ybor) last night for a friend's art show (amazing artist! check him out at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/spencerpm) and noticed that 90s fashion was beginning to emerge at the edges of the club scene but it's not the 90s we recall.

Like with the return of the 80s, it's not a perfect replica. It's the fashion we remember but painted with the experience of a few decades. The way people were dressed last night had elements that reminded me of going to the clubs in the late 90s mixed with something else I couldn't place but it made me smile.

There was also a fashion show at the end of the night (only got to see a few minutes of unfortunately) but the look and feel was really cool. The designers, Blackbird and Raven (http://www.modelmayhem.com/530530) have a really cool look and and their love of twisted-gothic-theatrics was just awesome. Here are some pictures from the show, the quality is terrible because it was dark I'm afraid.

Attack of the Clusterbots!

Today I said something on Twitter -- jeebus knows what -- that attracted the attention of a few bots. While I'd like to say I regularly log in and block the bots, what usually ends up happening is that I ignore them. However, today, for whatever fickle reason, I decided to go in there and remove them.

I used to be able to tell a bot from a person because they'd have a couple of tweets (normally all the same thing), they'd have a few followers (normally people that didn't understand bots) but followed like 40,000 people or something ridiculous like that.

Well, while trying to identify the bots I noticed something odd. These accounts were being followed but hundreds and even thousands of other accounts! I double checked the account to make sure and from their feeds I could pretty much tell what they were, but I was blown away that there were so many people willing to follow bots! Then it dawned on me... they were being followed by other bots!!!

All these annoying "work from home!" "see my boobs!" "buy viagra" bots were following each other! I mean it makes perfect sense, they're programed to seek out certain words and follow them, so they'd naturally be attracted to each other. All of these thousands upon thousands of bots are slowly finding their way to each other on Twitter and linking together into these MEGA accounts. Ashton Kutcher and Jack Gray won't have anything on them soon, they'll be bigger than Wil Wheaton! WHil WHeaton.

I couldn't help but envision a giant iceberg of linked bots, clustering around each other, floating in cyberspace. Much like zombies, ants on a floating stick, or Reapers in Firefly, as genuine accounts drift by their notice, they all activate and attack. Feasting on the flesh of bandwidth! Terrorizing the Twitterverse! Potentially crashing accounts or flagging them for deactivation due to these mass follow requests.

Could this even happen?! The horror... the horror...

Image lovingly "borrowed" from: http://aipanic.com/zombie-ai/

Amusingly, I meant to end this post here with the above image, however upon following the link I've discovered Zombie PCs... I'm so scared I might poop in my PJs. You should read it.

Playing with Facial Hair

One of the benefits of having a Y chromosome (and Mediterranean heritage) is the ability to change your very visage and appearance with a little time and persistence; i.e. facial hair.

Over the last week of my vacation, I got lazy. Laziness eventually turned into curiosity and I grew out a weeks worth of stubble to make a Vacation Beard (TM) as seen in a previous post.

Vacation Beard of the Mighty (+1 Charisma, +3 Manliness)
However, the downside to that is itchiness. Also a downside, prickling your loved ones when going in for a kiss. Therefore, I have removed said beard, but not before having a little fun. I shall now share said fun.

First up: creepy 70s mustache. If this doesn't say porn star, I don't know what does. Note the toilet paper on the chin. Vacation beards, you see, refuse to go without a fight. THEY WILL HAVE BLOOD! This one was no exception.

"Did someone order a pizza? You wanted extra sausage? I'll give you extra sausage."

(porn music: *brown-chicken-brown-cow*)

With a little creativity, a small set of scissors, some mascara (don't ask me why it was readily available...), and French hat I bought in Paris a few years ago I have a classic pencil mustache. Voila! C'est tres chic, no? No. No it is not.

"Bonjour! Je suis le inspector! Le inspector Clouseau. Fromage?"

Awww, here's the little weirdo that I am, all babyfaced and presentable. I think I look much dorkier without facial hair and I dig that. Now to get a haircut to clean up that moptop.

"Man, I love 20 sided dice."

I have the oddest facial hair though. It grows in blond around my mouth, a patch of black at my chin, then auburn red everywhere else. If I were a pirate I could be TriBeard! Argh! My only lament is not having tried the Hitler-stache. Nothing says funny like a Hitler-stache.

Avatar

Ok, so I'm sure most everyone has heard about Avatar and heard all the hype. Most of which I will in fact get behind.

Overall, I thought the movie was visually stunning and beautifully animated; and I'm not just saying that because a friend of mine helped animate it. It was really ... well, pretty. The animated characters show a realness to their emotions and reactions that make them more believable sometimes than their human counterparts (which says a lot!). It was also seamless in interaction with human characters and real terrain - we've come a LONG way from Who Framed Roger Rabbit!

If you have the option of seeing it in 3D it's really REALLY worth it! It's not an over the top 3D effect, with pointless crap being flung at you for the shock value, it's a subtle expansion of the visual depth that just makes everything so engaging. I say go for it. My friend said the 2D version is good and she didn't feel like she was missing anything but upon seeing it in 3D she said it was better in comparison.

Also, the story was on a whole we

ll done. There are a few moments where you feel the moral of the story is beating you over the head and some of the human "villain" characters are on the extreme side, but in the end you buy it. The action is fantastic, the battles nearly epic, and they help push the drama of the story forward instead of being just masturbatory explosive effects. I will say that on more than one occasion I found myself tensing in my seat and suffering mild anxiety for the heros of the story.

Overall, a great winter flick!

Also, there is an website out there that will let you "Avatar" yourself. The site is in German but with a little trial and error you can figure it out.

Here's me! (Left).

Yeah... I don't make a very good looking Avatar I'm afraid.

If you'd like to play with my Avatar, you can go here and check him out: My Avatar

You can make your own by clicking the box in the middle that says "Avatar erstellen"

Testing out this app

Hi, everybody!

I'm trying out a new blogger / photo uploader ap on my phone. Let's see how it works :-)




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:E Ellicott St,Tampa,United States

2009 Tribute

Here's my yearly tribute to the year that has gone by. Thanks for the memories, all and here's to more in 2010!