Blogging from Work

I'm two days into my new job as an IT Specialist II at the Instructional Technology Center at UTM and I'm already out of things to do.

Well, sort of...

I'm lacking some of the key software I need to get started on Web developing, but I thought I'd blog since it's been at least a blue moon since my last post.

Since then I've:

Successfully defended my Scholars Project.
Finished finals.
Graduated.
Moved out of university housing and back into my parentals' house for three weeks. This includes moving plenty of furniture, and lots of Karen's stuff.
Joined the church league softball team...and subsequently only made it to one game of four. (Is it sad that I'm too busy to play softball during the summer?)
Drowned in insurance options from the university as a full-time staff person.
Set up my new cubicle and Mac Pro.
Received free swag for being a new employee (including scissors, tape dispenser and stapler!)
Drunk lots of coffee to stay awake after getting up at 7 since I have to be at work at 8ish.


And there's more...but enough for now.

Michael Jordan quote

I found a great Michael Jordan quote today from "flipping through" a few blogs.

"I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot . . . and missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why . . . I succeed."

Michael Jordan

I'm running with that theme of stay positive as much as I can from now until April 17 at 5 p.m. (Scholars Defense)

Visualizing the Weekend Ahead

I know I often post tweets or blogs about how busy I am, but since I made a to-do list today on a digital sticky note (gotta love Macs) I thought I would post it for everyone to see what I'm doing between the time this is written and Sunday night. The good news is that not all of this has to be done by Monday, but most of it is due by Tuesday or Wednesday.

I have a feeling this won't make sense to a lot of you, considering this is a mixture of putting together a rough draft of my senior communications portfolio, a Communications law test, Photojournalism assignment, Comm and the World Wide Web project, and Scholars project writing. Whew.

To Do:
Finish Berlin's 4-5 lives
Photo Essay Topic Brainstorm
Examine Comm Law Study Guide - Determine what to study/read
Gather 20 oldest portfolio clips and put in template with art.
Study Session I - Comm Law
Finish personal Web page template
Write Berlin's 6-7 lives
Make Divider Pages and Executive Summaries in Indesign
Study Session II - Comm Law
Finish Berlin's 8-9 lives
Gather 20 more clips and put in template with art.
Finish personal Web page content
Write Berlin's 10th life
Gather remaining clips (20-30 stories + editorials)
Copy Edit
Gather published photos and any other docs needed for portfolio
Print portfolio
Study Session III - Comm Law

At some point: Make sure The Pacer is ok, go to church, sleep.

In other news, Karen and I signed for an apartment today and got a lot of wedding planning stuff done this week, so that's a little less stress on our plates now.

Peace.

More Scholars Project Thoughts

I had a scary realization today.

I have approximately five more meetings (going by the current schedule) with Dr. Rogers until I defend my University Scholars project. This means that insanity might be setting in a little more often in the next month and a half. I work well under deadlines; everybody knows that... but this is one heck of a deadline.

So the moral of the story is that I'm almost to the point where I have to drop everything but the essentials. Sorry if I seem unavailable until May 9 (graduation). That's just how it has to be. Life after I defend my project (don't have an exact date yet -- I'm shooting for as late in April as possible) will be miserable if I don't shoot for as high as standard as I want to because so many other things got in the way. That's my spiel and I'm sticking to it.

Lessons Learned

I learned a valuable lesson today about myself. I should never give blood in the morning.

I got up around 9 a.m., ate at 9:30 and went to give blood around 10. I didn't think about the possibility of not having digested that food yet. After donating I was really lightheaded and stayed on the bloodmobile until nearly 11. The staff took great care of me and a friend of one of my roommates made sure I made it back to the village without passing out.

On top of being lightheaded (which eventually went away with more fluids and food) the whole experience wasn't as great as the last two times I've given. My biggest problem? Arm hair. Their tourniquet really hurts when it pulls arm hair, and since I'm a slow giver for some reason (they always have to tell me to do something different or tighten the tourniquet to get my blood flowing faster) I always end up with a sore arm. This was compounded today because I ended up with a bruised arm from the needle. That's nice and sore now.

So the moral of the story is to give blood in the afternoon. And possibly go to bloodmobile #4, because I ended up with a bruise from the staff on #3. Maybe that's just a coincidence.

Let's get the creative juices flowing again...

It's been about a month since I've really worked on my University Scholars project. I've done some data-gathering and organizing over the break, but I really wanted to get more written...and it didn't happen. Now it's time to start cranking out a page or two every day (except Sundays) from here until mid-March or early April.

And I can't seem to get started. I've false-started two or three times this week. (That means that I've gotten as far as opening the Word document, scrolling down to the place to start writing, and then I've let it sit there.) So far, on my next two-three page segment on Unter den Linden that I've been wanting to finish for a month, I've got this much written:

"Throughout its history, Berlin’s most well known boulevard"

And that's it. I can't even write a complete sentence!

Anyway, I'm blogging just to get a feel for writing a few things out again. I don't know if I've hit a road block to creativity, writer's block, or whatever. I don't think it's senioritis creeping in, cause I'm really interested in most of my classes this semester and I'm not even that busy yet.

Well...Karen came over and wants to eat lunch now so I'm off the hook for the moment. Any inspiration you want to send my way, readers, would be appreciated.

Scrambling the Troops

We found out late yesterday that every Academic College at UT Martin is meeting today at 4 p.m. to hear the latest information about budget cuts from the administration. According to a major administrator, this round of cuts will only be affecting administrative staff, but plans for up to a 15 percent cut for Fall 2009 must be made in case Gov. Bredesen must make that large a cut from the state's universities.

That would translate into major cuts from the UTM Division of Academic Affairs up to $2 million. We are projecting that Dr. Jerald Ogg, vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, could cut every lecturer and instructor and campus and not reach the $2 million level, so major changes (READ: CUTTING PROGRAMS OR COLLEGES) could be in store for UTM.

Because this is so important, The Pacer is scrambling to cover each of those meetings this afternoon in order to report on the findings for each college to the student body. We will be running online updates this afternoon and possibly putting out a special print edition to spread the information to students.

This coverage will be supplimented with news about the sudden closing of the Skyhawk Card Office on Monday, including the firing of the staff in a manner that can only be described as without tact. The Student Government Association will also meet tonight at 9 p.m. to discuss these issues.

Stay tuned to www.utmpacer.com for more information as it becomes available.

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