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You Are Who You Choose To Be
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Thursday, November 19, 2009
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Hold you heads up, True Believers! It is far past due that your humble author updated this most prestigious and informative online journal. It embarrasses me that I have not made the time sooner to post something new about the world that is going on around me. I can only apologize to all of my loyal readers for what I imagine was the most harrowing experience of your life to log on to Tech's webpage and access "Jake's Viewpoint" only to find the same pre-Halloween post that you already read. I am going to do my best to make this long-awaited entry worth your time. It might get a touch lengthy, so I'm also going to break it down into sections in case you need to skip to the one which interests you most and return to read the others later.
If you want to know about our Halloween event, Trick-or-Treat Off the Street was a huge success. You can find some pictures from it here. I'm the one in the Dr. Venture costume, and to answer your question, he's a cartoon character from Venture Bros., a show on Adult Swim. It was no small challenge to convince students to stay in their rooms on a Saturday night to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. However, after questioning the students afterwards about their experience, I think that most of the ones who stayed around were happy that they had and felt that the time they gave up was worth it. I did talk to some students who did not think twice about sticking around when asked and promptly headed out into the night (no doubt to make all sorts of bad decisions). All in all, I feel that the students who were here represented Montana Tech well and that the evening was a positive for everyone involved. Thanks again to all who helped Tech put this great event on year after year!
If you want to know what's coming up for the MT Tech residence halls, everyone here is excited about the impending Thanksgiving holiday. Classes will cease at 1700 hours on Tuesday, although I fully expect that most students will be long gone by then. The residence halls will not be closed during that time, but we did ask any students who will not be going home for the break to notify us so we have a list of the people staying for safety and security reasons. Our office will be open Wednesday, but starting at the close of business, the residence halls will enter hibernation mode and will not resume normal operations until Sunday. I am very much looking forward to the peace and quiet that inevitably accompanies a mass exodus of students from the halls. I'm certain that the students will appreciate not having to worry about their classes either.
If you want to know about next semester, we sent out letters last week asking students what their intentions are for next year. Most of the responses we have received thus far are from students who will be returning to Tech and returning to the residence halls. We have a few students who will graduate this December and who will be leaving us forever, and we also have a few students who are transferring schools or who are upper-class students who wish to make their fame and fortune in the world of off-campus housing. If you happen to be a new student in the spring, we'll know which students are leaving at the very latest by finals week, so you should receive a housing assignment letter just in time for Christmas.
If you want to hear about the motivational pep talk I'm developing, I think it was a big hit with the few students who have seen it. I developed it after noticing that a lot of students seem to be exhibiting behaviors that are not conducive to being successful students. My whole talk centers around the concept of goals. I won't go into too much detail right now, because I'm still fine tuning the talk, but I'm hoping that it will allow me an avenue through which to counsel students and help them get the most out of their time here. We all know that nobody wants to get to the end of their semester or year only to find that he or she spent too much time partying and not enough time in class and now has to explain to mom and dad why all the money they spent on an education has gone to waste. The whole process is still a work in progress, but I'll let you know how it goes.
If you want to know about my personal life, I am a little bit unmotivated by this cold weather and my running has been suffering because of it. Maybe I'll do well to get rejuvenated by the Thanksgiving holiday as well. I'm heading to Bozeman this weekend, and although I don't have a ticket to the Cat-Griz game, I'll probably still go tailgating at the stadium. I also want to visit the French chocolate shop in town. I still maintain that the couple cooking up those chocolates makes them better than any of the ones I had in France during my recent vacation there. It should be a good time.
Finally, if you want to read my random thoughts, I can't believe that Newsweek has to stoop to stealing other people's photographs. Get your own photo of Sarah Palin instead of stealing one from Runner's World from five months ago. Newsweek is quite the trashy rag, if you ask me. I also don't know what's happening in the Pac-10 these days. It looks like if Oregon wins out then they'll win the conference, but if they were to lose I think it could be open to Stanford, Oregon State, and maybe even USC still. My first pick would be Oregon State (obviously), but I would be equally happy if Stanford won. The Ducks would be my absolute last choice, but I would still reluctantly support them as my loyalty to the Pac-10 overrules anything else. I'm also excited to get back on the ice this weekend. If you want to join us, open skate at the Butte Community Ice Center is from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm on Sundays.
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Happy Birthday Nathan Truzzolino!
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Wednesday, October 28, 2009
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Face Front, True Believers! Halloween week is half over, and everyone in the residence halls is brimming with excitement over our upcoming Trick-or-Treat Off the Street event. The RHA students held an all-hall meeting last night to inform the residents about how they can get involved and how they can help make this a fun and delightful event for the community's children. I said a few words trying to appeal to the students' own memories of being a kid around Halloween and how exciting it was. My hope was that their hearts would soften a little bit and that they would be more than happy to help out. As a reminder, the residence hall doors will open at 7 pm this Saturday, Halloween, and we will have trick-or-treating until 9 pm or until we run out of candy. Many thanks to all who have contributed to this great event.
I recently received an email about the upcoming increase in road risks due to the time change which accompanies the end of Daylight Savings Time. I remember reading an article once that Daylight Savings Time actually kills people, because the number of pedestrian deaths increases for a few weeks following the time change. It has something to do with darkness coming earlier and throwing people off, so they're not as likely to notice people trying to cross the street and what not. Of course I would be happy if they did away with Daylight Savings altogether (as I've never been a fan), but I just wanted to pass along a reminder to be extra cautious as we head into the end of fall, especially since the roads are only going to get worse.
Other than that, I'm not sure what's going on. I'll leave you with this link. I got a pretty big kick out of it. Look for good stuff about our Halloween here and at the MT Tech Residence Life website early next week! |
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To Give Anything Less Than Your Best Is To Sacrifice the Gift
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Wednesday, October 21, 2009
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I watched Without Limits last night, and I thought it was pretty darn good. Billy Crudup is one of the most underrated actors of our time. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.
I also put up a little website about Trick-or-Treat Off the Street 2009. You can view it right here. Right now it's just an informational page, but after Halloween it's going to have tons of pictures of students and their decorations of the halls. I haven't really been into Halloween in my adult life, but I had a lot of fun coming up with a cool costume two years ago (zombie), and I've been hooked ever since. If my jumpsuit shows up on time, I'll be equipped for a super cool Dr. Venture costume, and there just might be a Brock Samson also running around the halls on Halloween, so keep your eyes peeled!
We recently had our yearly fire drills in the residence halls. I think a lot of the students were a little grumpy, because it would turn out to be a wet, chilly evening, but I was afraid that hoping for nicer weather would be a long wait for a train that isn't coming. Most of the students followed the specified protocol, but I'm going to develop a post-drill residence hall newsletter to reinforce a few key things to remember in the event of a real fire.
Along with fire evacuation safety, I might include a little section in that newsletter about being clean. I'll give you a little back story. We recently had a new fire panel installed in Prospector Hall, and the horns and lights on each floor had to be tested. Since it was only a test, myself and a few RAs knocked on every door in the halls to inform students that they didn't have to evacuate. Some of the rooms were clean and tidy, but I poked my head into a few rooms that I wouldn't spend five minutes in, let alone live in. Now I don't want to cast aspersions, because I think I was a stinky-room teenager at one point and it took my mother innocently giving me an air freshener for me to shape up. Nevertheless, I don't think some students realize that a little time and effort with some cleaning can make all the difference when it comes to having a nice place to live. It also helps tensions between roommates if each one cleans up after him/herself and they split up common cleaning chores.
Life lessons abound at Montana Tech, and I hope you all enjoy the rest of your weeks at your respective locations! (I've also included a picture of me in my "Young Santa" costume last year. Nobody quite understood it, and I had to explain to a bunch of kids that I wasn't the real Santa. I expected more, because they probably knew that all the little guys in Spider-Man costumes weren't really superheroes. Oh well....)
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Thinking Outrageously I Write In Cursive
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Friday, October 16, 2009
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Sufjan Stevens - The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out To Get Us! In a previous online journal update, I stated that Belle & Sebastian is probably my favorite band. That is obviously a statement of a subjective preference of mine. Speaking objectively, as one is wont to do, there is no better American musician/composer living or dead than Sufjan Stevens. You might disagree with that, but you would be completely wrong (sorry!) Sufjan Stevens also has a special place in my heart, because I hadn't heard of him until I stumbled across something about him on the internet and checked him out for myself, after which I became a huge fan. I believe this video is from a segment he did on Austin City Limits, but I'm not sure. The song he plays in it was my first favorite from his "Come On Feel the Illinoise!" album. If you play close attention, you can spot the lovely and talented Shara Worden backing him up. (If you're an authentic True Believer, you'll remember that she stood on my seat at the Decemberists concert I went to in Missoula this summer.)
Congratulations to ASCE for winning the bed races yesterday. It was a nice day to have them. I've been thankful for the warmer weather because it makes running club a little less strenuous. Something about running outside in the super cold demoralizes me a little bit. I need to keep at it if I'm going to represent Butte well at the Montana Cup in Bozeman on the 31st. Hopefully it'll be a nice day for a race.
The highly anticipated Tech-Carroll rematch is tomorrow in Helena. Tech is coming off of a nice homecoming victory, so hopefully they can take some of that energy into the game and give Carroll what for. Just like I tried to shame Tech fans not to wear their inappropriate shirts, I'll do the same for Carroll fans. If you happen to be a Carroll fan, and you happen to have a shirt that says "Tuck Fech" on it, you should be ashamed of yourself. If it were me, I would just wear something that says, "Go Carroll!" or "God Bless Tech!" or something like that. Boom - two t-shirt ideas that are positive and inoffensive (although I admit, I stole the second one).
Whatever you decide to do this weekend, take advantage of the nice weather. I'm not sure it'll get any warmer before it starts to get colder.
Excelsior!
Update: As I was typing this I was watching some other Sufjan videos on my other monitor. I'm pretty sure I saw the Texas Capitol building in the backdrop, so it probably was Austin City Limits.
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You Woke Me From a Long Sleep, but I'm Almost Back...
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Wednesday, October 14, 2009
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Nada Surf - Killian's Red You might remember Nada Surf from their 1996 smash radio and MTV hit "Popular". Relegated somewhat to "one-hit wonder" status, they've consistently released quality albums since then, although not to the same levels of financial success as that first single. Their sophomore album, The Proximity Effect, is my personal favorite because its songs are better than their first album's and it still has a nice energy to it. "Killian's Red" is from their third album, Let Go, which solidified their place in the indie music scene. It's an all around great CD and is well worth checking out if you like this track.
We checked out the new Vu Pizza, and it's true: it's not the same as it was. I feel like I owe it to all of the delicious pizza I've eaten there over the years not to cast aspersions on it's quality, but I feel compelled to share the change with my loyal readers. You might very well go down and decide it's the most delicious pizza you've ever eaten and completely fall in love with it. Maybe I'm just reacting because it's not the same taste I've come to expect and love from a Vu pizza. I stand by my claim that a year ago, for my money, there was no better pizza in Montana than the Klondike from the Vu. I'm going to go back once the restaurant section officially opens again and reassess, so stay tuned.
Tech Unplugged is tonight at the MoFAB building (the old YMCA across from Butte Central on Park Street). It's part of a benefit that I'm not entirely familiar with, but I do know that my buddy Marko Hayden will be playing from 5 to 7 pm, and then there will be a poetry reading from 7 to 8 pm, and finally the Tech Unplugged portion featuring students, staff, and faculty from Tech. Local area favorite Chad Okrusch will be making an appearance, and if you haven't seen him live before, you should go check him out. As former Tech student Nick Hibnes put it: "He's da troof".
If music isn't your thing, the movie Get Smart will be playing in the library auditorium starting at 7 pm. Admission is $2 with a Tech ID and $4 without (I believe). I haven't seen it myself, but Steve Carrell is always funny.
Yesterday I sent out a campus-wide email about the annual Residence Hall Association (RHA) Trick or Treat Off the Street event held in the halls each year. Maybe I'll put up a website link advertising the event which can then turn into a post-event "Thank You" page with pictures. That could be good.
The week is going to be half over today, so we're almost on the downhill side of things. Keep the faith, True Believers!
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Pizza
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Monday, October 12, 2009
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Fischerspooner - Emerge
Both Montana Tech and the University of Montana won their Homecoming football games this weekend. Unfortunately, Montana State University lost their game, but better luck to them next week!
The bed races have been rescheduled for this Thursday at noon, so if you were extremely disappointed that you couldn't see them on Friday, this is your new chance. I would also like to give a shout out to the Math Club for winning the race to the M as a part of the Homecoming festivities last week.
I don't know that I have much else to add. We're still gearing up for Trick or Treat Off the Street 2009, so look forward to hearing more about that. I'm also going to make some changes to the Residence Life website this week, so there should be some new and exciting content there.
On a Butte note, I hear that the Vu is serving pizza again, although you have to eat it in the bar. The few reviews I've heard are that the quality has fallen since they've closed, so I'm going to go down tonight and do some investigating. The Klondike from the Vu is still my favorite pizza ever, so hopefully it was just some misinformation. I'll keep you posted.
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God Is Great
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Friday, October 09, 2009
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The Strokes - The End Has No End - I woke up this morning and wanted to hear a song that was so good it would give me chills and that I hadn't heard in a while. This is what I came up with on my iTunes.
Fear Not, True Believers! The Bed Races might be cancelled, but Mother Nature is a fickle mistress, and there's no one to blame for her summoning up a bunch of snow today. Hopefully the races will be rescheduled for next Friday, and we'll see who takes home the trophy. I'm hoping that the South Campus wins, because they have all of the fabrications folks, and it stands to reason that they should be able to build a better bed than a bunch of engineers.
Weather.com just told me that there's a high of 27 degrees (on the Fahrenheit scale) tomorrow, and it's expected to be partly cloudy. If you're planning on going to the Tech Homecoming football game, be sure to wear your thermals under your Tech gear. You can also drink some hot tea before the game to warm your soul. I recommend the Good Earth Sweet and Spicy (caffeine free). It's a delightful cinnamon flavored red that is easily my favorite tea of all time.
The carpenters are in the office right now working on installing our new flat screen LCD TVs in the lounges in each hall. They are a huge improvement over the old school projection numbers we have right now, and I think the students will be thrilled. I foresee more students watching playoff sports game and setting up the Xbox for some multi-player gaming action. I haven't been playing many vids since my trip abroad, but I'm really excited for that Left 4 Dead 2 to come out this November, and the next game I'm dying to play is Mass Effect 2 in January of next year. For my money, there are no better game developers than Valve and BioWare right now.
Other than that, not a whole lot is going on around campus. It seems like the time of the semester when students are getting into the swing of things. Our office has been quiet, which has been nice and has allowed me to catch up on some projects.
I also see that Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. Hmm... |
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Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying
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Friday, October 02, 2009
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS_DcqPkEYM If you asked me seven years ago what my favorite band was, I would not have hesitated to answer Belle & Sebastian. I'm still fairly certain that's what I would say, but their last album came out in 2006, so they're not at the forefront of my mind when I think of music. Interestingly enough, Justin Timberlake's last album came out in 2006, so there's another album I'm waiting on. Kanye West was supposed to have a new album out by now as well. At least the new 30 Seconds to Mars album is coming out this month (or at least so the band has promised), so we've got that to look forward to. I recently spent several days abroad, traveling through Europe (read: France and Scotland). It was my first trip overseas, and I had a great time. The history over there is bananas. We went to Versailles, and I stood in Louis XIV's bedroom. You probably don't want to hear too much about my trip, but I will say that I enjoyed the people in France. I found them to be extremely pleasant and friendly, and I hope none of you harbors any ill will towards the people of that fine country. France and the US have been friends for the better part of our nation's existence, and it would be a shame for citizens of either country to roll on all of that goodwill just because of disagreements over decisions made by governments of either country. As I told one French girl I met, I think that most Americans don't follow politics too closely and don't even like our government, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same for French folks. I was grateful to find, upon my return, that there are currently no cases of swine flu in the residence halls, at least that we are aware of. Yes, I still call it the swine flu, and no, it hasn't affected my consumption of pork products. I don't mean to be rude, but calling it H1N1 is for squares. Since I've been gone so long, I don't know much about what else is going on around campus. I think we're getting into somewhat of a groove for the semester. It was significantly colder in Butte than it was when I left. I guess Old Man Winter is like the crazy uncle from out of town that shows up randomly and announces he'll be living at your house for a few months. Sometimes he might disappear for a stretch of time, but you can usually count on him to come back again. Unfortunately it's taken until June the past few years before you can be sure that he's gone for good (or at least for the year).
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Will to Win
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Friday, September 18, 2009
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16-KmjO49OI There's another soundtrack link for you. It's by a band called Sunny Day Real Estate who were from Seattle and were one of the original emo bands (before that became a word meaning tiny guys wearing ultra-tight black jeans with crazy hair cuts who are sad all the time - it used to be about the music....) Anyways, I never saw them live, but I did see Jeremy Enigk, their lead singer, at Bumbershoot a couple years ago, and I thought he put on a really good show. He's an all around talented guy. So anyways, keep your chins up, True Believers! It's officially the start of the weekend tonight, at least for most people. If you aren't aware, Thursday night is the first night of the weekend at college, and it's affectionately referred to as "Thirsty Thursday". Some students arrange their schedules so they have no classes on Friday or just skip their Friday classes altogether. I'm not sure how well it works out for them, but it's an interesting phenomenon nonetheless. My Thursday night consisted of attending a Pilates class down at the Y. My buddy Chris is the instructor, and he cooked up a doozy of a workout for the group last night. Even though my legs were very sore from a crazy ab workout last night, I still managed to drag myself out of bed for Running Club this morning. We went up the walking trail to the end and back. It was a nice morning for a run: cool but not cold, and the sun hadn't come up by the time we finished. I don't know what it is about these late-summer/early-fall days, but the light hurts my eyes. I think the Tech Running Club, known formally as the Mining City Runners Squadron, is going to be picking up steam soon, so if you're interested you may email me for more information. There's another home Tech football game this weekend, if you're looking for something to do. I'm going to be a poor Tech fan and will instead be attending the Grizzly football game in Missoula this weekend. My brother offered me one of his season tickets, and I can't pass that up. Our boys will be playing Eastern Oregon in Alumni Coliseum, and even though we had a tough loss to Carroll last weekend, I have confidence that they'll come out hot and play a good game tomorrow. On the fantasy side of things, I won both of my league matchups last week (largely due to an amazing performance by the Eagles defense), and it'll be fun to see how my teams perform this weekend. Although I really don't care if my teams get smoked, because I just got into it for fun. I went with players that I liked, because I thought that was the main point of having a "fantasy" team. I don't even watch NFL games anymore either, but at least it gives me a reason to check out scores and see how the players stacked up. Aside from the Griz and Tech football games this weekend, I'm really excited to see USC in their first Pac-10 game against UW. Apparently the head coach of the Huskies is a former assistant to Pete Carroll, so that should be fun to see. And how about that Matt Barkley? He's shaping up to be my second favorite USC quarterback in recent years (behind Carson Palmer). Although I hope Oregon State has another great year. Jacquizz Rodgers is an amazing player to watch. Anyways, enough about college football. I hope everyone has a safe and happy weekend. The weather looks to be pretty good, so get out and enjoy the last little bit of warm weather. The days are only going to get shorter and colder from here on out. Take care, and God Bless! Excelsior!
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Spontaneous Gameday Online Journal Post!!
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Saturday, September 12, 2009
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It's approximately a quarter after noon on this fine Saturday in September, and I just want to get a quick message out. Shame on everyone (student, staff, faculty, or general public) who is wearing a negative shirt today. I apologize if I offend anyone, but I feel deeply about this issue and also feel the need to address it again. In the bottom of my heart, I love Montana Tech. This school was my home during the four years I was a student here, and I loved every minute of it. This school has now been my home for the past two years since I joined the staff, and while that's had significantly lower levels of straight up fun, I still wouldn't trade the last two years for anything. With all of that being said, I don't believe that wearing a shirt cursing out the other school reflects the values of our institution or adequately represents what Tech is all about. I want every Tech fan to cheer him or herself hoarse today yelling encouragement to our players, but the second we fall into hurling insults at the other team or the other team's fans, we've lost a little bit of ourselves. We've lost that best part of ourselves that always takes the high ground and always shows respect to the people who happen to be on the opposite side of the competition. Anyways, best of luck Coach Green, and best of luck Coach Van Diest. I pray for a injury free, well-played game on both sides of the field.
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BUT THE FUTURE REFUSED TO CHANGE
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Friday, September 11, 2009
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If you wanted a little soundtrack for my blog this weekend, just open this link in a new tab. I couldn't find any rendition of the album version of that song, but with the live version you can see what a great drummer Don Cab has.
Anyways, tomorrow is the big Tech-Carroll football game in Butte. I don't really have much to say about it other than my good friend Theo Winkelmann is singing the national anthem before the game. I've heard him sing very briefly, and I think he'll do an amazing job. He has my full support.
Yesterday was the 10th Annual Career Fair at Montana Tech, and the gym was full of recruiters and students trying to make some connections. I helped out with a variety of tasks including monitoring parking, distributing name tags, and collecting lunch tickets. I think my favorite part was seeing all of the students dressed like hopeful, young professionals. My friend Kevin Chollman once wrote an opinion piece for the Technocrat about how students should wear real clothes to class and not just roll out of bed in their sweats and slippers. I completely agree with him. I don't know that I'm going to insist on everyone dressing up nice all the time, but I would like to see students at least make the effort to get dressed and put on some real clothes. The most aggregious offender to me is sweat pants. The only time I'm okay with sweat pants is if you're headed to or from the gym or if you're not planning on leaving the house at all that day.
There's also a Jason Aldean concert this weekend, and some of the students are going nuts over it. I've actually never heard a second of his music, but I'll wish a "Be safe, and have fun!" to any student who's going. There's also a volleyball game tonight and tomorrow night. As for me, I'm going to be attending the Butte Central football game tonight. I haven't been to a high school football game in years, but I'm excited for a football game under the lights. I wish Tech would play more night football games, but maybe it's more complicated than me wishing it would come true.
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People Don't Dance No More....
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Friday, September 04, 2009
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Happy Friday, True Believers! It's been a spell since my last update to this most illustrious online journal. My goal for today is to serve up the equivalent of a literary meal. I'm going to be covering a wide variety of topics, so hopefully there's something in here for everyone. If you don't like one of the courses, just wait for the next one to see if that suits your fancy.
To start off, let's talk Tech-related subjects. This weekend, the Tech football team is traveling to Dillon, MT to play the Western Bulldogs. I would like to wish both teams a good game and am hoping that everyone plays well and that there are no serious injuries on either team. The internet just informed me that Carroll College is playing at home against Northern this weekend, and I'd like to wish them good luck as well. I know as a Digger that I'm supposed to hate Carroll College, but Butte Central graduate Matt Ritter is on the team, and my support of Butte trumps any hatred allegiances I'm supposed to have.
Speaking of Carroll College, I would also like to apologize to all of my friends and comrades that are affiliated with Carroll College for some t-shirts that have been making the rounds here on campus. If you haven't seen them, they're quite negative, and the only part of the whole thing that I can get behind is the line, "Go, Tech, Go!" I have to believe that the ugly parts of the Tech-Carroll rivalry over the years are on the fringe, and that the majority mindset at Tech supports the tenants of Pride, Excellence, Leadership, and Dedication (which are directly contrary to the spirit of those t-shirts). I encourage anyone from either school not to wear anything whose purpose is to cut down the other team. We should be positive and supportive of our own team while respecting the other in the spirit of collegiate sportsmanship that I feel gets overshadowed by a minority of negativity. In summation, I will still hope and cheer for a Tech victory in Butte next weekend when our two teams play, but that doesn't mean that I have to think less of Carroll College or any player, student, or coach thereof.
Last Saturday was my birthday, and it was also the day that Michael Jackson would have been 51 years old. I won't say much about that other than that since finding out we shared a birthday, I did feel somewhat connected to him over the years. I'm sad that we won't see what might have been on his planned tour and also that such a talented person had so many problems in his life.
On my birthday, some friends and family and I hiked up to the Lady of the Rockies statue. It was a perfect day for a hike, and it was extremely satisfying. My father accompanied me up. The three men I admire most (in no particular order) are the late Donald A. Floch, Rev. Wm. Roy Floch, and Rick F. Floch. I'm not sure I'll ever be as good a guy as any of them, but they've sure set a great example for me to follow. As an aside, if you're ever in Spokane, WA and looking for a place to go to mass, you can't do better than St. Pascal. I know he's my uncle so I'm probably biased, but Fr. Roy is the best priest I've ever encountered.
Finally, I was dancing around to some music the other day, and it made me want to do a top five list of my favorite dance songs. I don't know what type of music everyone listens to, but hopefully there will be something in here that you might not have heard and that can get your hips shaking. Again in no particular order....
You might have to copy and paste these urls. I'm so frustrated with the software that we use for this that I just want to make sure the info's up and quit.
"Can't Get You Out of My Head" by Kylie Minogue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfr9bhSmfXc (this video is a little racy, so just start it and go to a different tab if you're not into that sort of thing)
I think this is as close as we'll ever get to a perfect pop song. It's super catchy, has a good length, and I like how Kylie's thin vocals fit in with the mix.
"House of Jealous Lovers" by the Rapture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJVYH7CEkB8 From the album "Echoes" which was one of the best albums of 2003, it's the finest example of what could be called Dance Punk. If you've got a hankering for cow bell, the Rapture bring more than enough.
"Digital Love" by Daft Punk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjli3hj0ZkM
There's a really good fist-pumping moment when the bass kicks in about a minute into this song. Daft Punk are a well-known electronica band, so the song title is fitting for the sounds that they create.
"Heartbeat" by Annie
http://cnettv.cnet.com/annie-heartbeat/9742-1_53-1652.html
I would say this is easily the best song that came out in 2004. Another singer with thin vocals that fit in nicely to the beat. I also like the way the songs ends after just under three minutes leaving you wishing for at least a little more.
"Party in the U.S.A." by Miley Cyrus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a4eUM0i4Tk
Just to throw a newer song in the mix. I think Miley Cyrus is finally coming into her own as a singer and can stretch her pipes a little more in this song than her Hannah Montana stuff. It also touches on the universality of music and dancing (at least in a still-a-Disney-teen sort of way).
Honorable Mention:
"Whoo! Alright - Yeah...Uh Huh" by the Rapture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JUgh4KAibc
After hearing all of the cowbell in this tune I wanted to slip it in. It's definitely funkier than "House of Jealous Lovers", but I dig the heck out of it.
Have a safe and fun Labor Day weekend, and don't forget to buckle up if you're traveling! That applies to planes and road vehicles folks! |
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The Great Divorce
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Wednesday, August 26, 2009
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The Digger Hunt was a huge success last night. I'm not sure who found Charlie, but I know it was the biggest turn out for it that I've ever seen. There was a DJ playing extremely loud music, and a group of us were dancing and having a grand old time. Overall, I would say that the Orientation activities I attended went off smoothly. Thanks to all for coming and for helping us kick the year off on a positive note!
Today is the second day of classes on campus. I think it's a bit of a shock for the freshmen, but a shock as well for the upper-class students to get back in the swing of not being on summer break. I'm looking forward to things normalizing and getting in a rhythm instead of the ins and outs that summer brought. Interestingly enough, summer was a bit bittersweet for me, because the halls were quiet (mostly), but it seemed like I was just so darn busy. It's definitely been a rude awakening going from being a bit of a layabout to having a grown up job. I'm not complaining, although mainly because it never seems to do much good.
On a note completely unrelated to Tech, a friend of mine sent me this interesting quote from the late writer C.S. Lewis. I thought it was pretty good, and wanted to share it with all of my loyal readers.
"If we must have a tyrant, a robber baron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point be sated; and since he dimly knows he is doing wrong he may possibly repent. But the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations."
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I am like you. I have no name.
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Monday, August 24, 2009
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I couldn't be everywhere at once, but from what I could tell, Move-In Day was mostly a success. We hit a few hiccups, most of which were easily solved, and we had only one major snag. I maintain that it was mostly outside of my control, and could have been avoided had certain individuals shown a shred of responsibility, but I'm still pretty upset about it, and I'm going to run it up the flagpole to see what we can do to make sure we don't have to go through it again.
One of the reasons that the beginning of the academic year is the most exciting part is that everyone has a fresh slate. For all I know, every single resident who moved in yesterday is going to be an avid studier, a friendly neighbor, and a contributing community member. I'll be taking part in the RAs' floor meetings to try to give my pep talk slash plea to the residents to start the year off on a good foot and to try to make the most out of the time that they'll spend here. I can't guarantee that they'll all be receptive to it, but I will ensure that I'll give every resident the benefit of the doubt and do what I can to help them succeed.
A special double thanks to everyone who helped out yesterday. A few of the staff was up checking on things, and we had some local church groups helping new residents heft their belongings up to their rooms. Undoubtedly, it sped up the whole process up and made things go much smoother than they would have otherwise.
On an interesting personal note, my fantasy football draft was during part of my busy schedule yesterday, so I had to run the autopilot. I was able to get two of my three picks (Matt Ryan and Michael Vick), so I'm pretty excited about the whole deal. I don't know that my team (the Green Lantern Corps) will do well at all, but I think we're going to have a lot of fun, and that's really the only reason I got into fantasy football this year anyways.
Today we're going to hike up to the M for a barbecue as a part of orientation, and tonight we're going to cart a bunch of students to the drive-in. The two movies out there are "G.I. Joe" and "The Hangover". I suspect that most students will go see "The Hangover", because filthy movies seem to be all the rage with the kids these days. I'll probably go see "G.I. Joe", because it's about a real American hero. I'll let you know how my predictions turned out and how the movie is.
Excelsior!
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The End Has No End
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Sunday, August 23, 2009
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It's been a long two weeks since my last online journal update. Our office has been working fervently to prepare the residence halls for today. Right now it's approximately 9:00 am on Sunday, August 23rd, and in another hour the halls will be officially open for the new academic year. Tomorrow is orientation, and classes start on Tuesday, so the new students will really be hitting the ground running.
Anyways, I'll try to post updates more frequently now that the year is officially kicked off. The past two weeks have been extremely busy. I wish all Tech students the best, and I hope we can all and learn this year and grow into better people. (If you happen to be moving in today, and you spy some freshmen football players with goofy haircuts, don't be alarmed. That's just what they do.)
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You dare use my own spells against me, Potter? It was I who invented them – I, the Half-Blood Prince!
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Friday, August 07, 2009
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We are now officially 16 days away from having the residence halls full of bright-eyed, brand-new college students (along with a fair number of upperclass students). I don't know if I'll ever feel completely ready for that - it's been awfully nice having an almost quiet, almost empty building for the past few weeks - but I guess all things must end. Since I'm always a big believer in having a positive mental attitude, I'm going to assume that this will be the best class ever and that they'll all be well-behaved and ultra-focused on their studies - at least until I'm proven wrong.
Starting early on Monday morning the entire Tech football team will move into the residence halls for their annual pre-season practicing. There's a lot of returning names on the roster that I recognized, and a handful of new guys that I've had encounters with in some form or another. It'll be nice to meet finally some of the players with whom my only interaction has been through their mothers (you know who you are). You might think having a hall full of football players could be some trouble, but legendary Tech football coach Bob Green makes sure that all of the players are well-behaved during their stay. I also think that they will all be too tired to get up to any shenanigans.
Next Wednesday, the Resident Assistant staff returns to Tech for a week and a half of training before the halls open. I'm sure I've said it before, but we have a really good crew this year, and I'm anxious to work with them and excited for the relationships they'll be building among each other and with the residents on their floors. August 23rd is Move-In Day, and I'm sure it'll be as crazy as ever, but hopefully an extremely organized craziness. I just hope the weather is nice, because no one likes moving in the rain.
On an entertainment note, I went to see "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" last night with a friend of mine. I know I'll probably lose some of my die-hard fan cred by saying this, but I liked it. I long ago abandoned any thought that the movies would be as good as the books, so I look at them more as the visual companions to the novels. The movie and book are not going to match up entirely, but if there are story changes that I don't like, I still know how it's supposed to go in my head. I think it's also neat seeing some of the live-action characterizations. The acting of those kids (who should probably be called adults now) has really improved over the years. This was also the first movie where I feel like I got a sense of what an actual Quidditch match would look like. Overall, it's easily the best Harry Potter movie yet. I say if you're unhappy with it, then go read a book! I also encourage anyone who hasn't read any Harry Potter to get the first book (you almost definitely have a friend who would be ecstatic to loan you his/her copy) and give it a go.
Well, it's the Irish Festival in Butte this weekend, so hopefully we get some good weather for it. I won't be here for any part of the festival, because I will be back in Darby for the retirement party of a former supervisor (and old family friend).
Don't forget what I was talking about before: positive mental attitude. You can't let that negativity travel the 12 inches from your head to your heart. I don't care if you have to look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself that you're going to have a good day, you should always stay positive. Being negative never did anyone any good, and staying positive will make all the difference in your life. I'm learning not to let things outside my control negatively affect my mood. In the words of the main character of the movie "Fight Club", we should all work on developing "the ability to let that which does not matter truly slide."
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You don't climb into a T-180 to be a driver. You do it because you're driven.
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Thursday, July 23, 2009
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All I have to say is, "WEST WHAT?!?" If you didn't hear, the West Shrine team had an amazing overtime victory last Saturday night in Great Falls to give the West their first win in six years. As much as I can say this after just briefly meeting those players and having them stay in our residence hall, I am extremely proud of those guys' effort. It sounded like a great game, and I'm glad to have something to get excited about. A special shoutout to Butte's own Mike Ueland who suffered a broken bone during the game. Good work, and we're excited to have you coming to Tech this fall.
This weekend is Evel Days in Butte (or Evel Knieval Days or Weekend or something). It's a little less family-friendly than the Folk Festival or even the Irish Festival (An Ri Ra), but I think it'll be pretty sweet to see Spanky Spangler for a crazy, onfire jump. I missed his knocking down the two buses last year because I was serving noodles with my buddy Seanbaby, but that was a pretty good time in itself.
No matter where your weekend plans take you, remember to be safe always, and to try to have a good time. As an aside, I watched the movie Speed Racer again last night, and I am blown away by how much I like that movie. It could be my predilection towards fake Japanese style racing (see also Initial D), or it could be that I got a huge charge out of the parts that were homages to the old tv show. Either way, I think it's a great movie, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to see some really cool computer-generated racing action. Matthew Fox as Racer X is pretty much the best casting job ever.
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"In this world, there is right and there is wrong, and that distinction is not difficult to make."
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Wednesday, July 15, 2009
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I hope you all had a chance to make it to Butte for the Folk Festival. It was pretty spectacular. I'm that there's a good excuse for not coming, but I haven't heard one yet. I have never seen so many people in uptown Butte, including any Evel Days or St. Patrick's Days. I also found the Folk Festival much more enjoyable than any time I've spent at either of those festivities (with the possible exception of the time I spent last summer selling noodles with my buddy Sean at Evel Days). The Folk Festival is a much more family friendly event, and there was nearly as much of the negatives that tend to be associated with big happenings in Butte. I don't want you to think that I'm trying to cast aspersions on Butte culture, and I've been out and about uptown plenty of times, but I'm definitely a big believer in the efforts of Mariah's Challenge to change the culture and change the paradigm in this town. I've had numerous conversations with native Butte people (I say I'm a Butte guy, but I'm really a transplant) about how much they like it here and how often other people scoff when they hear you're from Butte and just assume that everyone in this town is drunk and fighting all the time. In my few experiences wandering around uptown on St. Patrick's Day, it's mainly people from out of town who come to Butte to dress in goofy green outfits and get irresponsibly drunk. My first time out on St. Patrick's Day involved me seeing a bunch of people, none of whom I knew, and going home within twenty minutes. I'm sure there were Butte people out there, but most of the Butte people I know are relatively tame and just want to visit with friends and family during those times and not just party for the sake of partying. Now I've gotten away from my original topic to do a little soap-boxing. I suppose I could sum up my point by saying to any new Tech students that there is so much more to do in Butte than just go to bars or house parties. On most weekends there's music to hear, art galleries to visit, drive-in movies to....drive to. They say that if you're in Butte then you're never more than fifteen minutes away from great mountains. I'm sure I'm leaving out a bunch of stuff, but my point is that there's a lot of interesting and cultured things to do that will probably benefit you much more than just going to some stranger's house because you heard they have a keg there. Drinking is also illegal for anyone under 21, which we all know, so I don't want to hear any belly-aching if any of you gets an MIP, because you knew the law and knew what the consequences might be. I think accepting responsibility for your actions is something anyone can work on doing better.
So after all of that, if anyone is still with me and isn't saying to themselves, "Who does this guy think he is?" the Folk Festival was really cool, and I had a great time with the Jeff Little Trio. They were amazing musicians, and it was a privilege to meet them and help them out this weekend. I saw a bunch of people that I know, including old friends that I haven't seen in ages. I like to think that it was Butte doing me a favor, putting me back in touch with people.
This Friday is another registration day, so be sure to RSVP if you plan on coming. I heard there's already something like 107 students who are supposed to be here, but we would never turn away anyone who wanted to visit campus and get their class schedule lined up. I always say that I love visiting with students, so if you're going to be on campus Friday and have any questions, don't be shy. Our office is on the first floor of Prospector Hall. All are welcome. The sign that tells you how fast you're traveling up Park Street onto campus is almost finished. At some point in the future I'll write about my thoughts on crosswalk etiquette. I hope everyone has a great week, and take care of yourself, because you can't put a price on health. |
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Bâtissant des Châteaux de Sable Fait du Sable
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Thursday, July 09, 2009
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Face Front, True Believers! I hope everyone had a ridiculously good 4th of July (or Freedom Festival if you found yourself in Butte). It was completely nuts up at Tech on the 3rd, because it seemed like half the town came up here to watch the fireworks display that they shoot off up below the M on the Big Butte just above campus. We had a little barbecue and took in some of the festivities. It reminded me of a big block party, because everyone was set up with their lawn chairs in parking lots and was lighting off their own personal fireworks in celebration of our nation's independence. For the actual 4th, I went floating with some friends on the Jeffie and then took in another fireworks display in Bozeman. It was pretty sweet how the fireworks echoed off of the building and homes around the fairgrounds.
This weekend is the National Folk Festival here in Butte. World class artists and musicians are coming in to play shows and workshops all over uptown. I'm part of a group volunteering as "artist buddies" for one of the bands. Our group is the Jeff Little Trio, and I'm pretty excited to get the opportunity to meet them and get them food or whatever they need. If you are looking for something to do this weekend, I think the Folk Festival should be at the top of your list, because it's free to all, and it's a great opportunity to see uptown Butte and take in some amazing music and culture. The mainstage is underneath the Original headframe, which is a pretty amazing sight to behold.
Our last group of Upward Bound students is leaving for home tomorrow, but this weekend and next week we'll be hosting the West Shrine football team. I think the East team got the best of us last year, so hopefully a week of Butte living prepares the team to bring in a win this year.
Other than that, move-in day is getting closer and closer, and we're getting ready for a whole new group of first-year students along with some returning friends. I think it's going to be a good year.
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I'm Confident Victory Is Within Reach
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Tuesday, June 23, 2009
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Sorry for the delay in updates troops. It really hit home last week how fast summer is moving when I spied the first fireworks stand up in Butte. I'm not much of a fireworks guy myself, but if you've never been in Butte on the 3rd of July, it's a sight to behold. Before the big city fireworks display (thank you Brooks Hanna!) the skies over uptown are constantly lit with tiny explosions of light and independence being launched in good faith from citizens' yards. This demonstration of love of country resumes after the big fireworks display finishes and lasts well into the night.
Last year the 3rd was a little bit rainy, which I thought added some cool to the night. On the 4th I went floating with some friends, and since the 3rd and 4th are on Friday and Saturday again this year, I'll probably try to go floating this year. Last year Presidential Candidate Barack Obama was in town for the 4th of July parade. Sadly, I missed the whole thing (because you can't float at the parade). It was still pretty crazy to have a high caliber politician in Butte though.
We had a registration day last week on Friday, and I visited with several parents and students. The morning and early afternoon were pretty clear, so hopefully everyone had nice weather traveling home. The next registration day is July 17, but if you clicked through the Tech mainpage to get to this blog, you probably saw the link over to the right of my face where I just found that information.
The Facebook group I started for the incoming residence hall students has had 41 students join so far, which isn't a high percentage given our overall numbers, but the students on there are having good dialog with each other. I haven't yet seen references to anything offensive or illegal, so hopefully we'll have a good group of young people in the halls this fall.
Hopefully I'll be back with another update soon. Take luck!
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But It Didn't Match Up In the End
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Friday, June 12, 2009
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Room assignment letters went out today. It never fails that a handful of people are dissatisfied with their housing situations, but I assure you that we did our best to meet everyone's requests in the most fair way possible. I still expect to field plenty of phone calls from curious students and parents (although I still think parents should make their students contact us with any questions, since it'll help them be able to do that sort of thing when they're out on their own).
I've also started a group on Facebook in the hopes that some of the students living in the dorms will connect on the internet and already have burgeoning friendships when the semester starts. If you do a Facebook search for "Montana Tech Residence Halls 2009", you should be able to find the group. It'll be an exclusive group, so only those students living here in the fall will be able to join. We did something similar with Myspace last year, but it seems like Facebook has emerged as the premier social networking site in the past twelve months.
My plans to replace trees around Prospector Hall are moving forward. Mark from Alpine Tree Services in Butte is going to come up soon to grind down the stumps from all of our beetle-killed Lodgepole Pine, and then I can start digging some holes and planting some trees.
It's been a quiet day in the office, because most of our summer employees were finished early, and all of the Upward Bound students headed to Yellowstone this weekend for camping and backpacking. I hope it stays dry for them, because I hear that there is a good chance for rain in Butte this weekend. If the sun does shine, I expect to see all of you out and about capitalizing on the summer months. They'll be over before you know it, so make sure that you don't have any regrets when fall sneaks up on you.
Excelsior!
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San Dimas High School Football Rules!
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Wednesday, June 10, 2009
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I keep forgetting to mention someone that I ran into at the Decemberists concert. I promise that this will be the last time that I mention it (until I find a better YouTube video with me in it.) While checking out the crowd before the opening band, I noticed a familiar face a few rows back. It was Mr. Dufresne, who is the English teacher at Darby High School, my old stomping grounds. While I never had him as a teacher (he was still teaching Jr. High when I graduated), I have heard nothing but good things about him from his students. We spoke briefly at the show, but I would like this opportunity to say, "Keep up the good work," to Mr. D. It's good to know that the people responsible for the education of our youth have good taste in music. On a separate not, in case you missed the Montana Standard earlier in the week, your humble author was quoted (or at least paraphrased). Read the article here Also noteworthy is the fact that I seem to have received a promotion from "Director of Residence Life" to "Director of Student Life". That means I'm another step closer to my goal of one day running this school. (Disclaimer: the author does not actually wish to take over Montana Tech; he is merely making light of a miscommunication between himself and a newspaper writer about what his job title is.)
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Winners Forget They're In a Race; They Just Love to Run
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Tuesday, June 09, 2009
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Moment of Truth, True Believers. Someone posted a link on YouTube of the Lewis and Clark portion of the Decemberists concert I attended a few weeks back. If you click on the following link and skip to about 2:27, you can see half my face in the spotlight on the lower right hand corner of the screen. We were right in the action, and it was amazing. I was hoping that someone from the balcony had been filming, because it would have made for a much better angle on the action. This video isn't really all that spectacular, but I can assume only that the videographer was so excited to be in the thick of things as well that he/she was a little all over the place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoMiAvmWorI
My weekend trip to Walla Walla was also extremely enjoyable. Highway 12 along the Lochsa River is absolutely breathtaking. I've decided that Western Larch (or Tamarack as some people like to call them) are my favorite trees. They have a cool, spindly look, and their needles are a shade of green that I can only describe as warm. My uncle also took us to a gigantic park in downtown Walla Walla. In the middle of the park was an aviary where I saw all kinds of exotic birds. It was an all around nice trip.
On a more Tech related note, I think that the Upward Bound move in went well in my absence. Never underestimate the magic of having good employees. The team leaders all seem like pretty good people, and the students have been fairly well behaved so far. All in all, it looks like things are going great so far. Thumbs up to everyone in the Outreach Office.
As a grammar nerd, I read a fascinating article last night about how computers are changing American usage of quotations. The official rule on the books is that if a quotation ends a sentence any ending punctuation goes inside the last quotation mark. Apparently this stems from a practical need of typesetters not to leave a period hanging after a quotation mark because they tended to break off. They were much safer inside, and so started the rule which has survived to this day.
If your quotation ends in a period already, you're completely fine, and any punctuation should go inside. However, strictly adhering to this rule becomes problematic when the quotation doesn't include the same ending punctuation as the sentence. For example:
Did he just say, "My name is Fred?"
compared to:
Did he just say, "My name is Fred"?
The first one is in accord with the traditional American usage, but it can misrepresent the intended meaning of the sentence. The second may look strange (perhaps only because our eyes aren't used to seeing punctuation outside quotations), but it makes much more sense from a logical standpoint, and the sentence's meaning remains intact.
Obviously there are still instances where punctuation would go inside the quotation mark.
"Did he just ask, "Who's Fred?"
As I mentioned, computing comes into play when written instructions are used for coding and other applications. Following the American rule can lead to confusion and errors.
At the command prompt, type "execute".
compared to:
At the command prompt, type "execute."
In the first example, it's clear that the user is expected to type and only type the word "execute". The second example leaves the user to guess whether or not the period in the quotation is required or there merely to comply with an archaic grammar rule.
I don't know how interesting anyone else finds this stuff, but I extremely enjoy reading about grammar usage and history. Sometime I'll get around to writing an online journal entry about the grammar error I find the most glaring: not using the Past Perfect tense with a Past Unreal Conditional.
In case this post wasn't random enough, I'm going to post a link to a live version of a killer math rock song by the band Don Caballero. I really like when the drummer kicks it up a notch starting around 3:30.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWPUYlzNwsU
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Between the Yellow and Red Onions
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Friday, June 05, 2009
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A bird flew into the window right by my desk this morning. We think it was a baby robin who was just learning to fly. He flew away after two or three minutes, so thankfully he hit lightly enough just to be a little bit dazed.
Our week with the Treasure State All-Stars is almost at and end. The big game is tomorrow at Alumni Coliseum, so if you're looking for something to do, kickoff is at 7:00 pm. I'm going to be out of town for a cousin's graduation in Walla Walla, WA, but I would go if I was here. I've never seen an eight-man football game before, but I hear that they're pretty exciting. Since these teams are comprised of the best players from around the state, it should be especially riveting.
Our next big summer conference is our yearly group of Upward Bound students. I don't feel like I know enough specifics about the program to give an effective description of it, but for us it means a bunch of high schoolers running around the dorms. It's a much different scenario than having high school graduates.
I meant for this update to be longer, but I need to be heading out for that graduation. I'll try to get something up this weekend from the road.
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Where is the life line here on the highline?
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Wednesday, May 27, 2009
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Look Alive, True Believers! Summer school is officially underway. We had a nice, peaceful, two-week break after graduation, but now campus is alive and hopping with fresh, young, beaming students trying to fill their heads with knowledge. We have about eight summer school students staying with us during this first session of classes, so it's nice not to be completely alone in the building during the day.
Our summer employees have been doing a fabulous job getting the buildings cleaned up for our conference activities this summer. First up, starting June 1, we'll be hosting the "Treasure State 8-Man All-Star" game. Graduated high school eight-man football players from around the state will practice for the week before the game on Saturday, June 6. They've been coming each summer as far back as I can remember (read: 2001), so it'll be nice to continue the tradition and give some of these players one last chance for glory.
We have a pretty busy conference schedule lined up for the rest of the summer, but more on that later. What I would really like to tell you about is the Decemberists concert I went to last Sunday night at the Wilma Theatre in Missoula. The opening band, Blind Pilot, is well worth mentioning. I believe they hail from Portland, OR, and they played a nice blend of indie-folkish type rock. They all seemed very appreciative to be playing for us, and everyone in our group was in agreement that they put on a fabulous show.
I had seen the Decemberists twice before, once in Seattle, WA following the release of their album Picaresque and once in Missoula supporting their album The Crane Wife. Their current tour, entitled "A Short Fazed Hovel Tour" comes after the release of their rock opera, The Hazards of Love. Guest starring on the album and joining them on tour are Shara Worden of the band My Brightest Diamond and Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond.
They began with the first song on their new album, and it became immediately clear that their show was going to consist of performing their rock opera in its entirety. None of us really knew what the plot was (beyond a vague notion), but it was amazing to see those two ladies performing their characters while also playing assorted instruments on each song. The Hazards of Love definitely has a much harder sound than their earlier stuff, but I didn't think it affected their appeal negatively in the least little bit.
After finishing the opera and taking a little break, they came back out and performed some of their older songs while lead singer Colin Meloy, (of Helena, MT and alum of UM) bantered with the crowd. When they came out for their encore, he played a song, "Save Yourself" that he wrote with the Montana-based folk band Tarkio. It was funny, because some drunk girl in front of us had been screaming that out every chance she got. Bully for her.
The craziest part was when, during the last song, some of the band members walked down into the audience as Colin narrated a reenactment of the Lewis and Clark story. From our seats in the second row, we could see them headed our way, until they finally climbed over the seats in front of us and stopped right on top of us. My friend Marko got to hold Becky Stark's hand to keep her from falling, and I got some nice phone camera pictures of some of them. I'm pretty sure that I'm in several people's photos from the show, because there were camera flashes going off all around us. I keep checking on youtube to see if anyone happened to be filming that, and if I ever find anything, I'll definitely post a "Hey check me out!" update to the journal.
It was one of the best rock shows I've ever been to, and if anyone who was there happens to be reading this, you know what I mean.
(These pictures lost a little bit going from my phone to the net community to right here, but hopefully you still see how in the middle of the action we were.)
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The Weight Is a Gift
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Thursday, May 21, 2009
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I'm writing this update at just after 2300 hours on Wednesday night, but for some reason I can't log in to the net community. Maybe because I'm on Firefox on a Mac. Who knows.... Anyways, the purpose of this blog is to put voice to some deeply depressing things that happened to me tonight. Tech RA Andrew Bender and I decided to play a little Halo 3 on Xbox Live, since we hadn't played for a while and nothing was really going on tonight. So we start to play, and I'm a little rusty. It would be a complete lie to say that I was ever really that good at Halo 3, and I have been so upset before at this fact as to disgust myself with how much my skill at a video game seemingly mattered to me. So my intent tonight was just to play some games, probably lose more than win, and have a good time. For the first few games, things are going great. I'm not doing that well, but I'm screwing off enough to have a few laughs with Andrew and a general good time. Then I notice it's getting late, and I tell Andrew that the next game will be my last. So we're in the pre-game lobby, voice chatting with the other fellows (I'm assuming they were all male) and some guy starts throwing around racist epithets. My first tactic with any unruly characters on Xbox live is to try to make jokes in case whatever reason they're mouthing off is just because of immaturity or whatever and maybe a little lightening of the mood will make everyone relax. Well this guy just keeps letting things fly. He's calling people that one word, calling some other player a "dirty Jew", and so on. So I tried to mute him before the game started, but had to mute him in game. (Thank you Microsoft for the mute feature, which I have put to good use several times). So we ended up losing pretty quickly, and I told Andrew that it was a bad game to finish on, so we should play one more. So we're in the next lobby before the game starts, and some completely different guy starts speaking all racist again. I didn't really get to engage him in conversation before the game started, but my only response was, "Are you serious?" We're playing some stupid game on the internet (because we're dorks and don't have anything better to do), and this guy takes the opportunity to let the whole group know that he's racist. I hope I'm not offending anyone when I say that all racists are ignorant and should be ashamed of themselves. It is not my intention at all to diminish this problem with a lead in about Xbox Live, but I was just astounded and ashamed of my fellow gamers. If those guys were actually racist, that baffles me, and perhaps shows my own naïveté, because I assumed we were all past that sort of thing. I may be incredibly wrong. If they're not actually racist, and are just throwing racial slurs around as some kind of insult, that shows a grave lack of compassion and understanding of the issue. (I always get a little upset when people use the term 'nazi' to describe someone being a bit hard nosed. So I might say to a student, "Hey now, let's not compare your professor being a harsh grader to Hitler's trying to wipe an entire race of people off the planet." As I said before, it baffles me. I remember overhearing at least a handful of racist jokes about a black man being the President of the United States. I'm sure most of the people who were telling them aren't deeply racist at heart, but again I want to say, "Are you serious?" I'm not the world's biggest fan of President Obama, but it's not because he's black. Of all things to dislike somebody for, something that's out of his control is the most ridiculous. Imagine if somebody hated me because I'm losing my hair: it would be completely ludicrous. I think I'm beginning to ramble, and I hope I haven't stepped over any lines with any of my loyal readers, but I just really felt the need to write something about what happened to me tonight. I suppose at the same time I shouldn't be so intolerant of intolerant people, and it's my solemn prayer for an end to racism and a beginning to universal respect. I pray that everyone who hates someone for whatever reason can open his or her heart to the value and dignity of every human life. As Matthew Caws said, "Always love; hate will get you every time."
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Can't see the forest for the trees
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Monday, May 18, 2009
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Sad News, True Believers... Four of our lovely Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta for you academic types out there) have succumbed to their pine beetle wounds and will soon be in the tree category of "recently dead". Their tops are already fading and in a few months they'll just be wildlife trees. Of course it wouldn't be very safe to have dead rotting trees on campus where students might be walking, especially with how windy it gets up here sometimes, so they'll have to be cut down sometime in the near future.
When I was a freshman here, way back in 2001, there were at least ten more Lodgepole Pine all around the dorms. Currently, due to recent beetle attacks, the only trees standing are some Engelmann Spruce (Picea engelmannii) and Subalpine Fir (Abies lasiocarpaa). I guess now that I think about it, we also have a few Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii).
It saddens me, though, to lose those Lodgepole, because there are so many of them in the forests around Butte. I would dare to say it's the most common tree here, and now we don't have any around Tech... I don't even know how the beetles made it up here, because we're far away from where most of the trees are dying. It's just a natural thing, though, because when the forests are overcrowded trees compete for resources and can be stressed and more susceptible to beetle attacks. It's a natural thinning agent. I could post an entire blog about how I think the national forests are being mismanaged through fire suppression and a lack of logging, etc... but I don't feel that people want to hear my thoughts about that in a Montana Tech online journal.
Anyways, my whole purpose behind telling you this is to make you aware of my goal to purchase and install some new trees in the areas that are now bare and vacant. I'm hoping to find some interesting species that will survive the harsh conditions we have, but I think I can find some cool ones and take care of them when they're just getting their foothold. Hopefully someday in the future, no one will remember when there were just a bunch of stumps around Prospector Hall.
I'd also like to give a shout out to my man Chuck Anderson, who during two seasons with the Darby Ranger Station taught me everything I know about trees.
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No more a rake and no more a bachelor...
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Friday, May 08, 2009
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Look Alive, True Believers! Today is the last day of finals. Another school year is coming to a close, and summer is closer than ever (despite the current weather). It's been a pretty busy week in the residence halls, but today is by far the busiest day. Our official policy is that students need to be checked out of their room no later than 24 hours after their last final or by 5 pm on Friday, whichever comes first. This is to spread out the checkouts over the week and to keep students from being here with nothing to do. Idle hands, as they say... Incidentally, there were several freshman classes with finals today, so the resident assistants have had their hands full getting cleaning supplies and checking out students.
For the past five years, graduation has been in Alumni Coliseum (including mine back in 2005). I suspect that the weather forecast will not be conducive to an outside graduation, and commencement exercises will be probably be held in the gym in the HPER complex. I've never been to an indoor graduation, but I hear that it's a bit of a logistical headache. I have no doubt that everything will go smoothly, and hopefully it will be a memorable occassion for all involved parties. Congratulations to all graduates and their families!
Our summer looks pretty busy. Our first big group in the dorms is the Class C Football All-Star teams, and we'll have people pretty regularly after that. I'm planning on having the best summer ever. Between all of the festivals to attend and rivers to float in southwest Montana I don't think it'll be too hard. My first big event is going to be seeing the Decemberists at the Wilma Theatre in Missoula on Memorial Day Weekend. Fronted by Helena, MT native and University of Montana graduate Colin Meloy, the Decemberists are a multi-membered thematic narrative alt-rock group from Portland, OR. Their latest album, entitled The Hazards of Love, is a rock opera about a woman named Margaret who falls in love with a shape-shifting forest dweller and the suppressive persons who try to ruin their happiness. I recommend listening to "The Rake's Song". It's pretty spectacular.
Anyways, my next time checking in will be during the summer when the two dorms are empty and peaceful, so I imagine it will be much lighter in tone and theme.
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Every day would be a Friday, and you could even speed on the highway
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Friday, April 17, 2009
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The weather outside today is absolutely gorgeous. The sun is shining, the air is crisp, and it's only supposed to get nicer as the weekend progresses. Yes, today is Friday, and I can't think of a better way to ring in the weekend than by having one of our Tech Days.
There's an interesting dynamic when potential incoming students are on campus. Most of the Tech students are getting summer fever (especially graduating seniors), and there's an energetic anxiety in the air. We're finally seeing some nice weather, everyone's getting burned out on classes, and all anyone can think of is how much fun this summer is going to be.
On the other hand, we have the high school students attending Tech Day. Bright-eyed seniors from around the state (or even farther away) have traveled to campus in the hopes that it will help them make one of the most important decisions of their lives (up to this point, at least). Most often accompanied by their parents, these students learn about Tech's culture, meet our professors and staff members, and the try to decide if Tech is a good fit for them. While they haven't graduated high school yet, they're making a stop during journey that they began some time ago. It's been a little bit too long for me to remember what it's like to think about going off to college to start living on my own, but thankfully there are countless movies and television episodes made about it to remind me. Usually they star people in their mid-twenties as high school students, but I've gotten pretty good at the suspension of my disbelief over the years.
Other than that, there's also the SPE Symposium taking place on campus. I think it started yesterday. If you don't know SPE stands for Society of Petroleum Engineers. They're one of our biggest clubs (many of our international students are here studying petroleum engineering), and I think it's a fairly large organizational internationally. I might be wrong on that, though. Petroleum Engineering is one of those subjects that escapes my interest, so I don't pay that much attention to it. I'm definitely glad that other people are interested in it, though.
On Wednesday night, the Residence Hall Association took a group of students to the Washoe Theater in Anaconda to see the movie Taken. Located in the heart of Anaconda, the Washoe Theater is more of an experience than anything else. The Washoe was built in 1930, and the best word I can find to describe it is warm. It's the kind of place that give me a good feeling just to be in. Tickets are only four dollars, and it is more than worth it to pay the extra twenty-five cents to sit in the balcony, or thirty-five cents for the loges, or front row balcony seats. The Washoe doesn't get new movies right away, but it's a good chance to catch movies you've already seen or that you might not normally see. Or you might go there if you happen not to like your other options for theaters, wherever you happen to be.
As for the movie, Taken, I would say it was okay. As my friend Ryan put it, "It's entertaining, which is all I can expect from a movie anymore." Liam Neeson does a really good job playing a distraught father who has to beat up slash murder a bunch of people to get his daughter back. If you liked Taken, I would recommend The Professional starring Jean Reno and Natalie Portman. It was written and directed by Luc Besson, who co-wrote Taken. It has a similar feel, but I think it has a much better human side to it.
The weather is only supposed to get better as the weekend goes on, so take advantage and get some sun and get some exercise. Those extra winter pounds aren't going to lose themselves. At least I know mine aren't.
Excelsior!
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Pascha
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Thursday, April 09, 2009
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Face front, True Believers! The Residence Life Online Journal is back! Your fearless writer has been sick for a little over a week, so my online journaling has suffered accordingly. In the interim, I did finally figure out how to trick the Net Community, which hosts this journal, to display my entries properly. A thousand apologies and a million thanks to anyone who had to scroll to the right a great distance to read what I had written.
Our annual RHA Talent Show was a success (in the author's humble opinion). It wasn't as well attended as some of our previous years' talent shows have been, but the level of performance was as high as it's ever been. I played some joke songs on my guitar to start the night off, and things only got better from there. My personal favorite was Tech student Casey Boyle, who sang a beautiful song in Italian. My friend Justin, who spent some time in Italy, told me that Casey's pronunciation was perfect. It's always interesting to me how shocking it can be to experience something that knocks you out of the banality of life. In one of his lectures, Tech Professor Robert Ziegler used a tragedy as an example of how this can happen. You can get sucked into your routine so much that the days just fly by and nothing seems to happen. Then something can happen, like losing a family member or getting in a car accident, and it slows everything down. Your senses sharpen, and you see everything differently and think to yourself, "Wow, so this is what it means to be alive..." So the point of all that was to say that listening to that song in Italian really shook me and made me think, "Wow, this is what life's all about." Sure the song would eventually end and I would probably fall back into my old routine, but for those three or four minutes, I would be experiencing something rare and beautiful and elusive and tragic. It was really quite amazing.
To see pictures from the Talent Show, follow the following link:
This week was also room resign for the residence halls. On Tuesday, students could come in and sign up for their same room for the upcoming fall semester, and on Wednesday we had a free-for-all where any unclaimed room was up for grabs. In past years students have had to camp out as rooms were given away on a first-come, first-served basis. This year I came up with the idea of having a lottery. My hope was that it would eliminate any confusion about who holds which place in line and wouldn't force people to camp out in our lobby overnight. As a pilot program, I would say the lottery was a success. For the most part, every student got what he or she wanted (or at least something reasonably satisfactory). Thanks to Head RA Kevin Chollman for assisting me with the operation, and thanks to all of the residents for their patience as we tried this new practice.
With the Easter weekend approaching, and due to Friday's being a non-instructional day, campus is starting to quiet down and the residence hall parking lots are beginning to empty. Tomorrow is named on the Tech academic calendar as "Spring Mini-Break". The Montana State University website calls the day off "University Day". A more authoritative authority, the Marvel Comics Calendar hanging behind me, denotes tomorrow as "Good Friday". It's the day where most Christian religions hold services remembering the day that Jesus died on the cross. I don't know if Montana Tech and MSU get the day off because of this or perhaps to make the Easter weekend a three day one, but their distinctions of the day off obviously serve to distance themselves from any religious associations whatsoever.
There's always conversations to be had about a "War on Christmas" or a "War on Easter" with people renaming the Easter Bunny the "Spring Bunny", but it is not my intention or desire to get into any such discussion here. I just got a kick out of "Spring Mini-Break" and "University Day". I don't think most college students would care if the day were listed as "Good Friday"; they're just happy to have the day off. I suppose it's safer to call it something that's not associated with any religion, because Americans tend to be ridiculously sensitive about that kind of stuff. I wouldn't be offended if I were living in a Muslim country and we got the first day of Ramadan off. But that's just me...
Coincidentally, as a Roman Catholic, I am not in the least bit offended that "Good Friday" is listed as "Spring Mini-Break" in the academic calendar. I'm more disappointed that it's a non-instructional day, which means that offices will be open, including the Office of Residence Life. It'll be a nice day of work, though, because it's usually quiet when all of the students are gone.
I've also heard several students saying that they would have preferred to have Monday off instead of Friday so they could spend the whole Easter day with their families and not have to worry about travelling back. That might be nice, but they should be thankful that they at least have one day off, because the students of the University of Montana don't get anything this weekend.
Excelsior!
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Holy Smokes, Batman!
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009
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I just realized it's been ages since I've updated this blog. I'm surprised that Melissa, Tech Webmistress and all around great lady, hasn't deleted me. (Sorry Mel...)
Since last I checked in, our Casino Night program was well attended, and everyone had an enjoyable evening. As I predicted, the artichoke dip that Dining Services made was amazing, and I said as much to anyone I saw around the food table. The four games we had were Texas Hold 'Em Poker, Craps, Blackjack, and Roulette. As you might expect, the poker tables were mostly full all night, but there were regular crowds at the other games as well. My personal favorite game would have been craps, because I love dice games and I get a kick out of hearing things like "No good, shooter!"
If you want to see pictures from Casino Night, you can follow this link: http://www.mtech.edu/residence_life/ra_programs2.htm
As you may know, classes resumed this week after Spring Break 2009. I hope everyone had a fun, safe week off. I took a week and went to Washington and up to Vancouver, B.C. for a night. That does mean that I skipped out on any St. Patrick's Day festivities in Butte, but as an Irish Catholic, I had dear St. Patrick close to my heart that day. My first stop was in Spokane for a couple of nights to visit some friends and to see my uncle, who is a priest at St. Paschal parish. I traveled on to the Seattle area and visited a bunch of friends who went to school with me at Tech.
On Wednesday, the day after St. Patrick's, three of us drove up to Vancouver, and I must say, having never been to Canada before, I was extremely impressed. Getting across the border was a cinch (we all had passports) and Vancouver is a beautiful city. What amazed me the most was how nice and friendly everyone was. I've grown up getting a sense that Americans for the most part think of Canada as a joke, or at least the brunt of the joke. After wandering around the heart of the city and visiting with a good cross section of the folk up there, my initial impression was that they were among the nicest people I've ever met.
I want to take this opportunity to apologize for anything bad that I've ever said about Canada. The next time I hear any Americans trashing that country, I will jump to the defense by saying how nice I thought the people were. I'm also glad that the Canadians we met didn't hold it against us that Americans make so many jokes about them. I guess the flipside is that they might make a bunch of jokes about us, or that maybe it's just Vancouver or British Columbia where people are super nice and the rest of the country is not as amiable. In the future I would like to visit Quebec, but I heard from some Canadians at Epcot that they especially dislike Americans. But maybe it'll take more personal, friendly interactions to show them that Americans can be nice people too
When I was in Spokane, I went to see the movie Watchmen in Coeur D'Alene, and I really enjoyed it. I don't know that a movie version of what most people consider an unfilmable graphic novel could have any better, and I thought there was undue fuss about a lot of the stuff the movie showed. Movies these days tell you why they are rated R, so no one should have been too surprised at any of the violence or nudity. I felt that the filmmakers made the choices they did to stay true to the source material (within reason). On the other hand I can see how someone who was expecting another Iron Man or Dark Knight might have been a little (or maybe a lot) disappointed.
Our Talent Show is just around the corner, so if you're on campus and have a talent you would like to share, please get in touch with me. For everyone else, if you happen to be in Butte on the night of Thursday, April 2, stop by the library auditorium at 7 pm for a great and free evening of fun. This year's show will have a "High Seas" (read: Pirate) theme, so it's guaranteed to be a blast.
Until next time, just remember that it's all happening and that the light at the end of the tunnel may be you.
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Put the cheese on it
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Tuesday, March 03, 2009
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This is not an official update, but I just remembered a video that some of the students posted on YouTube last semester and wanted to share the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-F_ObetuJw
Hopefully you don't think it's a complete waste of time. I get a huge kick out of it because I know the involved students. I won't mention names to save them from any embarrassment. (Not that I think they have any reason to get embarrassed, but you never know what some people are comfortable with other people knowing about them). Casino Night tomorrow!
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Sorry About the Delay Folks...
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Friday, February 27, 2009
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Oh my! It's been two weeks since I've updated this blog for all you true believers out there. I will try to fill this installment with some exciting content and captivating photographs.
The RAs have been hard at work preparing our upcoming "Casino Night" program in the halls on March 2nd. We'll run four gambling games (with funny money of course), including Black Jack, Craps, Roullette and Texas Hold'em. For refreshments, we will have some wonderful catering provided by Montana Tech Dining Services (their artichoke dip last year was amazing). It's typically one of the most successful all-hall programs we run, and it should be a really fun night. We will run games from 7:00 to 9:30 and then start the auction, which will have some awesome and fun prizes. After the event, I will post some pictures up here and on our official website, which you can reach at this address: http://www.mtech.edu/residence_life
There have been several RA programs in the past two weeks. There was a T-Shirt making party, a mini-golf trip, and some movie nights. 
This is a cool "Science" shirt made with a bleach pen. 
Atallah and Aziz are going to get this unsuspecting mouse, but good. These guys have been teaching me some Arabic phrases. I've learned how to say "hello", "goodbye", "thank you", and "you're welcome". I would try to type some of them out out, but I'm not sure how the English spelling of Arabic words works, and I would almost definitely mangle them anyways. Last night we had an information session for current students who wish to apply for an RA position next year. The current RAs and myself gave a brief overview of the Resident Assistant position and how the application process will work. We had a little over twenty students interested in applying, and I can already tell it's going to be a tough selection process. Maybe that goes for any hiring though.
In the spirit of staying positive, I'll refrain from posting any "What grinds my gears" material this week. If something really grates my cheese in the next week, you'll be sure to hear of it soon.
Until next time,
Excelsior!!
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Good Food, Good Meat...
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Friday, February 13, 2009
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Last night the Residence Hall Association hosted a Valentine's Bash for all of the residence hall students. Historically, the event has been a "Blind Date" night, but this year the students decided just to have a catered dinner followed by bowling at Star Lanes. The turnout wasn't large, but everyone who came seemed to have a really great time. Future RHA programs will include the annual campus Talent Show, a hot-dog eating contest, a piñata party, a trip to the Washoe Theater in Anaconda, and much more!
After a delicious Valentine's Bash dinner last night, I wanted to tell you about some of my favorite eateries here. The Front Street Market is an interesting shop where you can get all sorts of exotic food items unavailable in the typical grocery store. (Exotic isn't the right word, but it's the first one that comes to mind.) In addition to a fine selection of wines, cheeses, and other party foods, the Front Street Market does catering and is open for lunch. For around six dollars, you get a decently-sized sandwich and a bowl of soup. They have two soups each day, and I have enjoyed every one that I've tried. It has a nice atmosphere and is a good place to go sit and visit over a meal.
The most unique aspect of the Butte dining scene in my mind is the variety of local pizza shops. My personal favorite, because of my penchant for thin-crust pizza, is the Vu Villa. For my money, it just doesn't get any better than a Klondike pizza from the Vu. It comes with sausage, pepperoni, jalapeños, garlic, and is sprinkled with cheddar cheese. If you're scared of spicy foods, you probably won't like it, but if you enjoy spicy, you owe it to yourself to try it out. There is also the more recently opened Trimbo's Pizzeria which serves delicious New York style, big, floppy, fold-as-you-eat pizza. The Broadway Cafe is a good place to get more unique pizzas with toppings like artichoke hearts and sun-dried tomatoes (both of which I love), and it's common to see local musicians showcased in the dining room in the evening. I also want to give a quick mention to the now defunct Pablo's Pizza; they had an awesome buffalo chicken pie. We also have a MacKenzie River in Butte, which is a Bozeman, MT based chain that has a good Montana atmosphere in its dining room.
There are several places to get Chinese food in town, but my personal favorite is Asia Gardens in the Butte Plaza Mall. They have a reasonably priced lunch menu, and their Hot + Sour and Wonton soups are amazing. I've always enjoyed the service there, and while I haven't exhausted their menu choices, I've never ordered something I did not enjoy, and their wide selection should appeal to anyone.
When I go out for lunch, I usually go to either Wetona's Coffee House + Deli (their Turkey Club is one of the most delicious sandwiches I've ever eaten and has an amazing pesto mayo sauce on it) or Northwest Noodles + Wraps (their famous Peanut Sauce makes an amazing noodle or rice bowl).
Most of my meals are taken over at the Marcus Deli on campus, because it gives me the opportunity to get to know the students and is convenient. However, it is nice to get off campus every once in a while and have a night out. There are many more places to eat in Butte, and I didn't really touch on any of the classier joints (because my favorite places to eat are usually not the more pricey places), but I think our local cuisine, while not as varied as that some of our neighboring cities, has many tasty offerings at affordable prices.
Happy Valentine's Day everyone! If you don't have anything to do, don't feel bad, just think of it as an excuse to have more fun than usual. I think it's unfortunate that some people don't like Valentine's Day because they think they're alone. You're never alone, and there's always someone around to spend time with or have fun with. So let the good times roll, and I'll catch you all next week!
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They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!
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Saturday, February 07, 2009
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I haven't been doing that much around campus, so my well of interesting online journal material is a little dry this week. I know that Chris Van Nuland (Sub Daddy) is updating the Digger Den in the Student Union Building with new flat screen TVs and a Wii with Guitar Hero. Our Residence Hall Association set the date of April 2 for this year's annual campus Talent Show. Scuttlebutt around Tech is that the date coincides with a competition that will have Europeans and Australians on campus, so there could be nice opportunities for some international visitors to showcase their talents. As I alluded to in my previous blog, the main focus of today's post is going to be zombies.
Wikipedia puts the matter most clearly by stating, "A zombie is a reanimated human corpse." The zombie in its current form first appeared in the pop culture vernacular due to the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead, which was directed and co-written by George A. Romero. Since then, zombies have appeared in movies, books, comics, and video games (most relevant to this blog is Valve Software's recent release, Left 4 Dead, the excessive playing of which has inspired me to write about zombies in the first place). According to Wikipedia (which is a good enough source for me, but you should feel free to disbelieve anything it says), zombies first appeared in the Vodou belief system. A powerful sorcerer could control people to be used as laborers. The English word zombie is derived from the Creole zonbi, which in turn comes from a Bantu word for a person who has been brought back from the dead without speech or free will. A popular story tells of one Clairvius Narcisse, a Haitian man who was allegedly poisoned by his brother with natural toxins to simulate death. Shortly following his burial, Clairvius was exhumed and given a substance designed to cause hallucination and memory loss. He was forced to work on a sugar plantation for over a year until the 'bokor' (sorceror) who was controlling him died. After his regular drugging ceased, Clairvius regained sanity and returned to his family.
Until Night of the Living Dead, zombie films had been about living people who were enslaved by witch doctors. By having his zombies be reanimated corpses who aimlessly wander looking for victims, George Romero revolutionized the horror movie genre and created a creature that would become as ubiquitous as vampires or werewolves. In the film, recently dead corpses begin to reanimate and start killing people. It is never concretely stated what causes the reanimation, but a scientist suggests that the phenomenon may be caused by radiation from a space probe returning from Venus that exploded in Earth's atmosphere. Romero's zombies were slow creatures with blank stares that wandered aimlessly and become active only around living humans (victims). Other depictions share these traits, although more recent media have presented zombies that are quick, ferocious creatures with varying levels of cognition.
Most zombie stories are based around a zombie apocalypse, whereby an outbreak of some sort causes a widespread infection and the collapse of civilization. Common plots follow a small group of human survivors who must travel to a safe area or fight to survive against the undead hordes. In Night of the Living Dead, all of the characters the audience meets have died by the film's resolution. In most modern zombie stories, at least a few of the main characters survive to the end and often are not any better off than when they started.
There exists and interesting contrast between the zombie hordes and any human survivors. The average person has become so used to creature comforts and the conveniences of modern living that he has no idea how to survive when the rug is pulled out from below. While the zombie outbreak in a sense reduces humans to automatons, survivors are often reduced to their most basic emotions and motivations, and there is less that separates them from the hordes than might be apparent. The true fact of the zombie apocalypse is that every person's life is ruined. One either exists as a member of the mindless undead or as a survivor forced to barricade herself and survive amongst the horrors. By nature human beings feel the need to revere a human corpse and hold it sacred. When that same corpse is trying to kill you, such feelings must be ignored. There are many more themes to explore in the context of zombies, and I'm sure someone has written at least one term paper about zombies and the modern man. I just wanted to dust off some of my writing skills and do a brief, surface analysis of a subject that has been increasingly intriguing to me. If you haven't played Left 4 Dead, I highly recommend it. It is an exciting co-op shooter that has given me countless hours of entertainment.
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Tech Days and Debates
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Friday, January 30, 2009
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Today the Montana Tech campus was full of visitors from around the state. In addition to holding one of our "Tech Days" (where prospective students come to visit campus and get a feel for what it's like to be a student here), we are also hosting a state Speech and Debate tournament. I didn't participate in many of the Tech Day activities, but I did meet a handful of students and parents. (See journal post from 12 January for more information about my dealings with parents).
I don't know thing one about Speech and Drama, so I can't say much about that. We didn't have it at my high school, but from what I've seen it has quite a dedicated following. Several of our students participated at their respective high schools and will be assisting this weekend as judges. I wish the best of luck to all participants!
The Superbowl will also take place this weekend, and a few of the RAs are hosting a party for the residents. It will take place down in the Digger Den on the lower level of the Student Union Building, and a projector will be set up to show the game in addition to the four TVs there. Dinner will be provided by Montana Tech Dining Services, and students will sign up and win prizes based on the score at the end of each quarter. It's been a good tradition that will hopefully continue as long as the Superbowl does. I probably won't watch the game, because I have never been pleased with the outcome of a Superbowl as long as I can remember. Now that we have the internet to show me all of the best commercials the following day, I won't feel like I'm missing out on anything.
That might be all I can write describing the current happenings at Tech. I wanted to continue this post with an essay about zombies (a particular fascination of mine), but I didn't know if I could polish it up to my satisfaction before the weekend. I will try my hardest to get it up soon.
Have a safe Superbowl weekend, and I'll check back in soon! Ciao!
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Cigarettes and Comedy
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Friday, January 23, 2009
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Yesterday afternoon I attended a Smoke-Free Campus forum held in the lower level of Student Union Building. The forum was organized by Joyce O'Neill, a Montana Tech counselor and chair of the Student Wellness Taskforce.
If you Google the words "smoke free campus", the first website that results is from the American Cancer Society titled "Smoke-Free College Campus Initiative". I found that the most startling (though perhaps not entirely surprising) piece of information they had was that while all other age groups are decreasing in their tobacco use, college-age people are smoking at an increasing rate. When considering the possibly rebellious identity searching and proclivity towards social drinking that occurs at this stage in life, it's not completely shocking that some people would start smoking. However with the increases in medical knowledge about how harmful first, second, and third-hand cigarette smoke is for the human body, it's a little discouraging that anyone starts smoking these days. I suppose the bottom line is that it's still within an adult individual's legal right to smoke as often or as much as he pleases, and that probably won't change anytime soon. The purpose of the recent on-campus forum was to start a dialog about the possible pros and cons of Montana Tech moving forward with the initiative to become a smoke-free campus and join at least 240 other schools around the country.
The forum was facilitated by Dean of Students Paul Beatty, and the main panel consisted of two individuals for each side of the issue, including a student, two staff members, and a local health official. The overall turnout was less than what I had anticipated, but I believe that a good cross-section of the on-campus population was represented. After the panel members each spoke for about ten minutes, the room was opened up for questions or comments from the audience, which lasted for about another half hour. Everyone was civil, and several viewpoints were expressed.
By the end of the forum, the general attitude of the audience tended toward not going entirely smoke-free on campus, but working towards finding some strategically placed, designated smoking areas away from heavily traversed areas. As we well know, smoking is an addiction, and it's a tall order to expect a smoker to forego entirely smoking on campus. At the same time, I understand what it's like not to want to be forced to walk through a group of smokers while going to class or to have smoke drift up through your open window on a hot day. Having designated smoking areas seems to accommodate the most people, as it would provide a smoke-free environment for non-smokers while not completely abandoning the needs of those who do choose to smoke (even if President Obama visited campus).
I feel obliged to mention that the comparison of banning cigarettes to banning cheeseburgers and donuts doesn't make sense to me, because cheeseburgers and donuts are not inherently unhealthy. They have calories, many of which come from fat, and overconsumption can be unhealthy, e.g. exceeding your recommended caloric intake, but there is no acceptable recommended daily allowance for cigarette smoke. The average cheeseburger has four to six hundred calories, but cigarette smoke contains over four thousand chemicals including known carcinogens. Moreover, eating a cheeseburger has no detrimental health effects on the people around you. There's also no such thing as second-hand cheeseburger (as far as I know...)
Anyways, those are just my feelings/impressions/opinions on this one particular matter. Please feel free to agree or disagree with anything I've written, not that you needed my permission. Smoking on campus is just one health/safety concern to address, and there's also effective discussion to be had about promoting exercise and healthy diets, binge and underage drinking, how often people exceed the campus speed limit, mobile phone use in vehicles, etc.
On a lighter note, the Student Union and Residence Life Offices co-sponsored a comedian in the Library auditorium last night. Don Friesen, from Los Angeles, CA, performed to a crowd of mainly students (with a few staff and faculty comedy lovers sprinkled throughout). I was thoroughly impressed with him, and after having dinner with him, it was intriguing to see how he worked local research into his act. After the show he met with fans in the lobby and sold and autographed copies of his DVD. I think the night was a huge success, and would like to thank SUB Director Chris Van Nuland for working to bring such a great entertainer to campus. Keep it classy, Tech, and God Bless!
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Check In Day for Spring Semester a Stunning Success
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Monday, January 12, 2009
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I wish I were able to tell you an amazingly awesome anecdote about check in day, or relate a story that conveys a lucrative life lesson, but alas, I have no such tales. Our check in for the residence halls began at 8 am, and we had a fairly steady flow of new and transfer students move in. Things went fairly well, although we did have a few minor hiccups due to our high occupancy and fluctuating population, but it was nothing .Tomorrow is orientation/registration for new students, and classes start Wednesday. I expect most of our returning students to come back tomorrow night, although I've seen several back already.
One of the most fulfilling parts of my job is meeting a multitude of young people from all walks of life. In the past week, I met a nice couple from North Carolina (who are moving into our Apartment Housing complex), an extremely polite young man from Angola, and a young girl who is attending school here from New York. I saw a comment from one of my Facebook friends the other day about the lack of diversity in Butte, and I don't know that anyone is necessarily to blame for that perception. Just the same, I feel extremely privileged to be able to meet and make friends with students from all over the state, country, and world. In my experience, people are as eager to share their own countries and cultures as I am to learn about them. I have often felt, as a Montanan, that I was stereotyped as being a xenophobe. What I've noticed is that my smalltown upbringing has left me extremely curious about people I meet who come from different backgrounds than I do. I feel that if I can gain knowledge of their perspective or experience it will improve me as a person and we will both be better for the encounter.
Finally, I want to wrangle my thoughts back to the topic of Residence Life. It is not my wish to offend anyone, and I don't want this to turn into a Jake Floch "What Grinds My Gears" blog, but I think that some things need to be brought into the light so they can be seen. I am completely blown away by how much I see students not doing things for themselves. Our office receives applications that are obviously filled out by a parent, usually a mother. I get emails and phone calls about roommate issues from parents, both mothers and fathers, often before I've heard anything from the student. During Tech Days or move in, it's usually a parent who asks most of the questions while the student stands passively in the background. A common call I get goes "I need to get my son registered for housing." This is only a shadow of a reflection of the total contact I have with parents.
I'm not foolish enough to think that I will have absolutely no contact with parents, and sometimes its healthy and necessary, but I can't help but feel that the more parents do for students, the harder time students are going to have learning how to do for themselves, especially when they are capable of it.I am always pleased when a student calls herself and asks her own questions about housing or when a student comes to tour the dorms and his parents wait in the hallway while he visits with us about the application process. It shows an independence and autonomy that is a natural part of a well-rounded individual.
This should by no means be viewed as an indictment of all students or all parents whose boundaries appear to differ from what I hold to be a healthy norm. I know very little about these people, and I will never be fully aware of their specific situations. I would just be refreshing to deal more with students themselves rather than their moms on the phone as a go-between. |
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Spring Semester quickly approaches
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Thursday, January 08, 2009
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I would like to borrow some words from my buddy Drew Waltee and say, "Hello to all my loyal online journal readers!" I am fully aware that my last update was over a month ago, and, regrettably, I fear that this new installation will not make good on the unspoken promise in any medium of greatness after long absence. I have not felt extremely confident in my writing abilities lately, so I make no promises as to the quality of this journal. Now that the bar is so low that we can step over it, it's time to get to some content.
The Montana Tech residence halls will open for the new semester on Monday, January 12th at 8 am. Our staff has been rushing to get the halls in tip-top shape for the return of the students. Most of us had taken off the days around New Year's last week, and on Monday it really hit home that students would be back in only a handful of days. It would be a lie if I said it wasn't nice having the residence halls empty and quiet, but it'll be nice to have the students back for another semester of learning and fun.
As part of our continual improvement plan, Prospector Hall was just equipped with new mailboxes. If you are unfamiliar with the old ones, they were old combination-lock mailboxes that seldom worked and often had six students sharing one mailbox due to size constraints. The new units are key-operated, and every room has its own mailbox. The carpenters did an amazing job installing them, and as I type the painters are putting the finishing touches on the paint on the surrounding wall (which had to be cut up a little to fit the new, larger mailboxes). I don't know if anyone else will be as excited about the project as I am, but I think it will be a huge improvement for our residents. Now I just need to figure out the most effective and efficient way to get keys to the Prospector Hall students when they return.
Other than that, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year's, and I'll post another update on Monday when the halls open. À bientôt!!
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Maiden voyage of the Online Journal: Residence Life
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Friday, November 14, 2008
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Welcome to the first ever Montana Tech Residence Life Online Journal! My name is Jacob Floch, and I have been the Director of Residence Life since September 2007. I grew up in Darby, MT, and I graduated from Montana Tech in 2005 with a degree in Liberal Studies. I am pleased to be working at Tech and to be a part of the excitement and energy that accompany a higher education institute.
My intent for this journal is to give readers an insider’s view of the workings of the residence halls. I will try to be as current as I can with events and goings on in the halls and on campus, but if we hit a slow week and not a lot is going on, I will use that time to go into detail about some aspect of our operation and how it pertains to life for our students.
I apologize that this initial entry is going to be brief, but I don’t want to overwhelm you with too much information right out of the gate. I’ll leave you with a brief overview of our office staff. Annie Telling is our administrative assistant, and she processes all of the applications and work orders and other paperwork that we have. She also cares a great deal about the students and is a good listener. I think people around here think of her as the dorm “mom”. Bill Moran and Fred Perry are our two fulltime custodians. They start at seven in the morning mopping floors, cleaning bathrooms and doing whatever else it takes to keep our buildings clean. Bill and Fred are aided by two student custodians. Finally, the staff is rounded off by twelve resident assistants. These students come from all class standings and degree programs, and they have the most direct student interaction out of any of us. Resident Assistants are the first line when it comes to dealing with student issues and problems, and I will write more about them in a future journal.
Other than that, I would like to say again welcome to the Residence Life Online Journal, and please contact me with any comments, questions, suggestions, or concerns. Take care everyone! (My email address is jfloch@mtech.edu)
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