Open Letter to United / Continental

Dear United,

On a recent business trip, I booked my flights through United/Continental. Three of four flights were through Continental and only one through United. The United flight (UA854) was my morning flight out of SFO.

I arrived at the airport two hours early, dropped off my car and made may way to check-in. I inquired with United staff about where to check-in, they saw my Continental confirmation numbers and sent me to the Continental Desk.

After waiting in line to check-in, I then instructed that because my SFO->IAH flight was United I'd have to leave the line and go to the United line. I went to the United line, explained what occurred and was told by United staff that despite my flight taking off in an hour, I needed to wait in line with everyone else. I waited, inquired again as I saw my flight time get closer, was told to go to the curb for faster check in.

I went to the curb and was told that I had missed my 45 minute window to check bags and would miss my flight and had to go to station 26 inside for assistance. I went to station 26 where an agent helped two groups of passengers ahead of me, then made eye contact with me, and left the counter not to return.

I waited and when it became clear no one was coming to help me, I inquired and was told I needed to rebook on the kiosk. I went to the kiosk which instructed me to speak to an agent. I asked the individual directing people where to go to speak to an agent, and they said no, I needed to use the kiosk. I tried again. I called them over and showed them the screen. They sent me to the special assistance line.

I was repeatedly told that I should have been at the airport two hours early (which I was) but no-one seemed to realize or care that the entire delay was started by misinformation because United staff did not take the time to look at my itinerary and answer my questions correctly.

The ticket agent was very nice, and perhaps the one United staff person that morning to actually listen to me try to help the best she could. I was put on stand-by for an oversold flight and had to rebook on Continental for the IAH->TPA flight.

When it became clear that I would most likely not make the next flight and that the flight after that had been canceled I was asked by United customer service repeatedly "What do you want me to do about it?" and then told "You should have been here two hours before your morning flight."

Continental had a SFO->IAH flight but I was told by United they couldn't help me get on that flight, that only Continental could help me. I was told by Continental that because my SFO-> IAH ticked was United, that they couldn't help me, but United could.

How is it that you can merge two companies, book flights through Continental, end up on a United flight, but then no one can help you with the entire journey, just parts?

I understand as the two companies merge you have some kinks to work out, but before booking on each others flights, a system to assist costumers booked on both should have been worked out.

Moreover, I'd suggest that staff be trained to: a) listen to customer questions, b) read itineraries they're given very careful, c) direct customers to people who can answer questions if they do not know the answer instead of giving misinformation or just shrugging their shoulders, and d) form some kind of united front on the new company's policies. I was given conflicting information from both United and Continental agents, including the Continental help line and the United costumer service desk at SFO.

Luckily, the 4 people on standby ahead of me due to missed flights (for what I can only assume was for the same misdirection and misinformation I received in the morning) were both couples and I managed to get on the one no-show seat. While things worked out for me, there were four very upset people stranded in SFO with no way to make their connections, a position I was nearly in myself.

Hiccups happen. I understand that. I also understand SFO is a madhouse. Your staff is stressed, pressed for time, and is doing the job of at least 3-4 people at once. However, in my case, and I doubt I'm unique, those hiccups not only caused me to miss a flight, but then repeatedly have the blame placed on me. A little bit more empathy would have been nice.

Regards,

Rene Sanchez

Tampa, FL

Not what you'd expect, Old Sport

Great Gatsby the Nintendo Game?! Yes. Indeed.

Apparently sometime circa to 1990 AD someone came up with and produced a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) based (very VERY loosely) on Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. When I say loosely, I'm mean TOTALLY loosely.

You've got 8-bit cinematics based on scenes from the novel and Nick Caraway shooting, what I can only imagine is his hat at butlers, flappers, gangsters, drunks, hobos, and apparently the Flying Dutchman. The bosses, make no sense. I'm assuming one of them is a mob boss sending baseball players at you and another is a giant pair of glasses, which I assume is the intense eyes of Dr. Eckleburg.

The closing cinematic is partnered with the last few lines from the novel.

What the hell?! I mean, I love the Great Gatsby... but wow. This was odd.

Try it out for yourself! http://greatgatsbygame.com/

Planning an Adventure

PCH, originally uploaded by Above All Pictures.

So this winter's adventure did not work out as planned. Between snow and holidays and prior commitments I didn't make my roadtrip to DC.

Not to worry though, there is more chance on the horizon.

I was just notified that my conference proposal was accepted for my professional organization (NAFSA) was just accepted so I'll be participating in the poster session in Vancouver, Canada. Lovely!

The conference also just happens to fall on my 30th birthday!

As a gift to myself, I think I'm going to rent a car and spend a few days driving the Pacific Coast Highway (PHC) from Vancouver to San Francisco, which I'm told is among the most beautiful stretches of highway in America (see the amazing picture from Above All Pictures above).

I'll get to visit some friends in Seattle on the way as well as see some picturesque vistas. It'll be a bit lonely, driving alone for a week, but I think it will provide some much needed reflection and inventory as I move along into my 30s.

Maybe, this trip is what will allow me to develop my super powers, eh?

A Precarious Place

A Precarious Place, originally uploaded by Rene10.

Railroad crossing, watch out for cars. Can you spell that, without any Rs?

The Prince

The Prince

Niccolo Machiavelli

There were moments of the Prince that felt like I was trudging through molasses with iron boots on and a dirty sock stuffed in my mouth—while I can appreciate what would have been the originality of these ideas for his time, especially set forth so directly, I found the work overall tedious and was constantly counting the pages to see how much more I had left.

A lot of what he talks about is essentially common sense, but maybe that’s just it. It seem like common sense now, because his ideas has so permeated our views of geo-political issues that the entire work feels a bit like some drunk relation cornering you at a wedding to tell you their opinion on what your doing with your life for the one-billionth time.

Some of the historical facts and used as examples made it easier, if only to allow me to visualize people locked in combat or feed into my love of ancient history. Still, it essentially took me longer to get through this particularly text because I didn’t find myself enraptured by it—then again, this isn’t a story or a narrative, it’s a manual, so why should I be surprised that it reads like one.

Machiavelli does have a keen wit and, when rereading passages with a grain of salt, I could appreciate some of his sarcasm. Especially since he supposedly hated the Medici family and that who he was writing too…

While I’ve read countless texts no doubt inspired, at least in part, by the ideas in the Prince during my “tenure” as a grad student in political science, I’m glad I read the original text—if only to appreciate house for better knowing the foundation.

The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath

I have to admit I found myself drawn into the narrative of the Bell Jar. Early on I made the unfortunate move of identifying with the main character and some of the feelings she was having while everything was still amusing, and really, just sort of blasé. I realized this was a bad move, identifying with the main character of a Plath narrative, but it was too late, I was a bit entranced by Esther Greenwood’s take on things in New York. It wasn’t until her decent into depression that I really regretted it, finding myself feeling more than a little blue the more the narrative struck home.

Still, it was excellently written and I did find myself sneaking paragraphs and pages in the fractions of free time I could steal fro my day in addition to my dedicated reading time.

Plath really puts forth an wonderful societal critic through the eyes of Esther, whose parallel’s to Plath’s own life leave the reader a little haunted by Plath’s ghost.

The tale’s feminist critique of a woman’s role in society is particularly interesting and really highlights the thoughts that were beginning to spring during this time period. I believe it’s initial publication in London was in 1963, the same year that Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique was printed. It’s interesting how Esther’s thoughts, while likely stemming from some form of depression, really does focus in on her uncertainty of where to go with her life and whether to settle for domestication or seek out a life as a writer. Even the way sex and gender relations are treated is such a comment on the times.

Amusingly, I couldn’t help but draw a parallel to Esther worries and Addie’s reflections on her own life in As I Lay Dying. The same sense of betrayal and of bring tricked Addie reflects on in relation to Anse is the same that Esther feels in relation to Buddy Willard. The moment she sees the woman give birth, in her drugged induced state, and they way she feels when she see women with all these babies, she almost fears developing the emotions (hatred and resentment) that Addie actually does develop—she fears the loss of her self to this act but unlike Addie (perhaps from inexperience and her young age) she then questions those feelings and wonders if she just shouldn’t given in (as Addie herself did to Anse by the lake).

Overall, I dug this book. A good read.

As I Lay Dying

As I Lay Dying
William Faulkner

Overall:
This book took some effort getting into. While I appreciate Faulkner’s attention to writing in the accent of his characters, there were passages I sometimes found it difficult to decode. There entire descriptions and narrations that were difficult to focus on and I would reread them just to get a gist of what was going on.

I did like the constant change in perspective. Faulkner takes the reader into the head of each of the characters to move the story along in a way that helps paint a picture of who they are. Seeing the same dialogue or events from each character’s perspective also allowed a deeper understanding of there relationships and motivations.

Overall, the story was interesting, but I found it difficult to really care for the various characters, just kept returning to the story out of morbid curiosity. It was like passing a car accident, no matter how annoying or mundane those people are in their normal lives, the accident or pain makes for a compelling moment. I guess that’s true of any story, but in this work I felt like that was really the driving force that kept me reading.

I will say the most interesting chapter was the one actually narrated by the dead mother. I thought that was really well done and tied together a lot of the plot and made the first half of the story really come into focus.

Symbols and Such:
When I told people I was reading this book a lot started referencing sexual innuendo and while I can see some. There was plenty of overt sexual references:

• Darl’s pseudo-masturbation and then wondering if his brother was too: “Then I would wait until they all went to sleep so I could lie with my shirt-tail up, hearing them asleep, feeling myself without touching myself, feeling the cool silence blowing upon my parts and wondering if Cash was yonder in the darkness doing it too, had been doing it perhaps for the last two years before I could have wanted to or could have.”
• Dewey Dell’s pregnancy, seeking an abortion, then being tricked into sex with the pharmacist while her youngest brother sat unknowing on the porch.
• Addie’s affair.

As for sexual symbolism, there is something Freudian and Oedipal about the youngest boy, Vardaman drilling holes into his mother’s coffin so that she could breath and then, most horrifically, boring holes into her face by accident. There is a sexual element to that, especially given the boy’s young age, but I’m not sure if it’s an intentional reference on Faulkner’s part or maybe just part of Vardaman’s denial of his mother’s death and view of her as a fish.

The symbol of the fish is interesting. It starts off with Vardaman bring a fish home and being told to clean it as his mother lies dying upstairs. He, seemingly unskilled at it, makes a massacre of it, and returns to the house covered in the fish’s vitriol and soon discovers his mother’s death. He now associates his mother with the fish, she is not dead as much as not reincarnated as a fish.

This fish symbol comes to life when the family is trying to ford the river and is overtaken by the rushing water and a log. The log, made of wood like the coffin, bobs and surges with the wave and seemingly attacks the wagon. Cash tries to keep the coffin in the wagon but eventually it falls into the water and Vardaman again calls out when he sees Darl doesn’t have her coffin “You knew she is a fish but you let her get away.”

I feel like I’m missing something here. I mean I can see the symbol is reoccurring so I know that this association between his mother and the fish is important but I’m just not sure what is being said.

Then there is the elemental fights that take place. Air: Fighting the wind and storm to get the doctor up to the farm. Water: The flooded rivers. Fire: The barn fire Darl sets to burn his mother’s coffin in hopes of freeing the family of all the burden of getting the body to Jefferson. Earth: Digging the grave, which seems to cause the meeting of Anse and the widow/spinster that will be his new wife.

Characters:
Darl: Obviously Faulkner’s favorite, or at the very least the character chosen to be the omnipresent narrator through Addie’s death, narrating the events at the farmhouse while away on a delivery with Jewel. He’s the one seemingly most affectionate to Addie, and regarded by all the characters as the oddest. If nothing else his sections are the easiest to read, I think. I empathized with him for some of the story, but I felt I lost touch with him as the story went on, maybe that was intentional to show his descent into madness

Cash: He seems the most level headed of the entire bunch. Though he seems more concerned with production and his tools than with the other characters in the story. His main concern seems to be for doing what he sees is his duty and keeping his tools safe.

Jewel: What an asshole. His disregard for the other characters sets him apart, and the constant reference to his difference in demeanor and difference in appearance, and how he’s treated so differently from the rest of the brood, really lays the groundwork for Addie’s confession during her chapter. His obsession with his horse is all the more appropriate as he holds himself with a demeanor of pride that makes me easily associate him with a horse.

Dewey Del: She has a lot on her mind aside from her mother’s illness and eventual death. The fact that she’s pregnant out of wedlock and her fear of people finding out is the driving force behind most of her actions.

Vardaman: The twelve year-old brother and the one that seems to have a mental break at the beginning of the story after his mother’s death. His observance that “his mother is a fish, but Jewel’s mother is a horse” highlights Jewel’s illegitimacy.

Anse: He’s the most selfish character in the story I think. All he’s worrying about is getting his new teeth and feeling sorry for himself. He’s a good-for-nothing. I don’t like him.

Addie: Perhaps the most interesting character in the entire story, and she’s dead for the better part of it. I think the placement of her chapter narrating her history, her affair, and her request to be buried in Jefferson is perfectly placed and makes the toil at the beginning of the story almost as an attack on society’s treatment of women during this time period. There is a very strong feminist current I think, at least as it pertains to the criticism of marriage and motherhood as a form of slavery.

Cora: She serves as a good foil for Addie during Addie’s chapter.

Tull: He is a good foil for Anse. Highlighting Anse’s undesirable qualities.

Whitfield: His chapter was amusing and gave good closure to Addie’s. He’s obviously a terribly hypocrite, making the journey more for his own guilty conscience than anything else. Still when he discovers Addie’s died without saying anything and then heads home, you realize it was more about him saving face than clearing his conscience.

Samson: An observer.

Peabody: I don’t particularly see the point of his chapter except to highlight the family’s interactions and Anse’s unluckiness.

Most Related To Character:
I had trouble finding a character to relate to. While I appreciated the clear and omnipresent narration the Darl had throughout the first three-quarters of the story, I lost my empathy for him about halfway through the novel, as they are working to get Cash’s tools out of the river. Towards the end, I empathized more with Dewey Dell but I still wouldn’t say I related to her. I wonder if this might not have been intentional on Faulkner’s part, creating such a tapestry of personalities so as to view the tragic events of the story (seriously tragic when you stop to think about some of the events).

My Reading Project

So I've decided to read all the books I've cheated myself out of during middle / high school and early college. I had the habit of reading a few pages, the back cover, then listening to a few comments about the reading from classmates then fabricate a very strong opinion to the point that by conviction alone, everyone would believe that I must have read the book to have such a strong opinion.

While I learned a valuable skill doing this, BS and chicanery is my bread and butter sometimes, I think I really gypped myself out of something more valuable I could have gotten, personally, from the reading.

To this day, books like Siddhartha, Ender's Game, The Alchemist, and Perks of Being a Wallflower stand out in my mind and really impacted how I often looked at my life, not just because they were amazing, but because they're among the only books I've read, drowned in, surfaced for air, then returned to. I love these books, but maybe some of the other books I skipped over for not wanting to do the work would have had just as heavy an impact on how I view the world.

So I'm returning to them.

I've already ready two of them in the last two or three weeks: As I Lay Dying and The Bell Jar. I wish I had reflected on them as I was reading them, but I'm going to use this blog to reflect on what I recall from them and then, moving forward, I'll comment on the reading as I go.

Ready? Set? Go!

Silly Email

The following is an excerpt of an e-mail message I just sent... Oy vey

"I'll be honest today was rough and to keep from reverting to bad habits I've poured some rather strong drinks and now and quite drunk and it's only 6:30... wow, glamourous.

"Anyway. Green Eggs and Ham. Yes. I enjoyed it. I feel it is an example of great American literature which should be hailed frequently, like a new york taxi cab. I mean honestly, look at this list: http://www.readliterature.com/american.htm

"How many of them have you ACTUALLY read. And I don't mean the cliff's notes, or the back cover, or seen the movie, I mean READ it. Me? Eight. Yup. Eight. Now I've heard of a bunch of these and skimmed it, have it on my book shelf, took a test on it, seen a movie- working through one of them actually- but read it? From cover to cover? Intro to epilogue? Eight.

"Yet I've read Green Eggs and Ham more times than I can count before I even realized I was reading. With a fox in a box, on a train in the rain? Yes sir, Dr. Seuss, you betcha. You bet your sweet bippy even-- though I'm still not sure what a bippy is... wait that was Goldie Hawn wasn't it?? Nevermind. Point it I've read it and it changed my life. Cat in the Hat? The Lorax? 1 fish 2 fish Red fish blue fish? Of course I have!

"I'm not sure where I was going with this and should most likely stop now. :grin:"

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.