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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Scary-lantern? (Flickr Photos)

Scary-lantern?
Originally uploaded by archelenon

I realize that I haven't blogged or posted photos to Flickr in a while. But really, nobody has any comments? I'm disappointed!

I might have more time to blog this weekend or in the coming weeks, as we approach Thanksgiving Break.

I'm definitely going to try to post more pictures with my pretty new camera... Oh, did I fail to mention that I have a Nikon D90 now? Sorry...I didn't want to advertise it right away.

Fall Break: Money, Money, Money, Money (and a little Geography)

Fall Break started for Karen and me on Friday afternoon, when we frantically packed and got ready to go to Jackson after a busy Friday. Her Thursday-Friday involved Spanish, Voice Pedagogy, and Aural Skills tests, so she had no time to pack. I had three geography tests (Geog of Europe, Remote Sensing and Cartography) Monday-Wednesday, so by Thursday I was ready to get a break (and thus went to the awesome UTM-Eastern Illinois football game) and didn't pack for Jackson.

We were only kind of late (later than said we would get there, but still in time to eat supper before Julie and the kids got there!) We called it an early night because Karen, Anita, and I had to get up and go to Memphis early the next day.

We got to Memphis around 10:30, and I was promptly dropped off at the Apple store while Karen and Anita looked at wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses. Lucky for everyone, the store had both the right dresses and a good deal, so we were spared a drive to Low's Bridal in Brinkley, Arkansas, to continue the quest. I was able to burn an hour at Apple before "burning out." One can only look at the same tech stuff for so long, without drooling or running out of things to play with.

So I sat outside for a while.

For an hour. But the weather was very nice! The high was only 85, and that didn't occur until later in the day, so my guess is that it was upper 70s, with mostly sunny (I watched the frontal boundary move through the area with puffy cumulus clouds.)

On top of doing some impromptu meteorology, I also took an amateur's stab at analyzing the urban landscape around me. In case you aren't familiar with the Apple store in Memphis, it is technically located in the Saddle Creek outdoor shopping center of Germantown. The area is easily describable as affluent, with its upper-middle class shoppers, expensive clothing stores, Williams Sonoma, and Apple. Needless to say, I felt a bit out of place with my blue jeans and UNC shirt...

But I wish I had had my camera. I got a few shots of the area when Anita and Karen came back (my camera was in the car) but there were a lot of good photo opportunities I missed!

I thought long and hard about the whole Saddle Creek set up, and in the end I decided that I like the concept and (mostly) approve of its design. The layout of the main section (there are two smaller sections across the road) is similar to an "M" with parking inside the outer set of shops and building space for two stores at the focal point in the middle of the shape. If you are really curious, see a PDF of the layout.


At the two bends in the outer set of shops are brick facades with Roman-esque arched openings. The store fronts themselves are different, as per each parent corporation's choosing, but they mostly work together in a modern design theme that incorporates similar materials--glass, steel, and brick--and shades to form a unified front that doesn't have weird juxtapositions. My guess of when it was built was off a little: I was thinking mid-'90s, but according to their Web site, www.shopsofsaddlecreek.com, the complex was built in the late '80s. My guess of the age was based on a few small signs of wear: seams in the concrete that have been filled with a slightly different color; cracks in mortar of the brick columns; a couple businesses that are have closed in the last few months.

The site as a whole is definitely still economically viable. There were a lot of people out shopping, and many demographics were present: Caucasian, Asian-American, African-American; rich, white collar, not-so-wealthy; geeks (for the Apple store) and trendy high schoolers; old and young. This place appeals to everyone. If I had to guess at the motivating factors for people to shop here, I would say that it's the atmosphere and the quality of shops that draw people. The outdoor atmosphere is fun and relatively peaceful (despite the tornado siren test that took place around noon.) The closed-in space feel more intimate than a huge megamall. There is light rock and oldies music playing on outdoor speakers, and there is a decent amount of green space (and two water fountains) included also.

There is also an effort to connect with the community. The shops of Saddle Creek currently are sponsoring an outdoor art exhibit of painted horse statues (remind anyone of the Berlin Bears?) in honor of the 60th Germantown Charity Horse Show.


So while I had to sit there for an hour, at least I got to put my geography skills to good use, right?

The rest of the day was spent spending money (that second theme I referred to in my title). Mostly buying clothes on my part...I'm sorry to say it, but I spent money at Gap and Old Navy. (Didn't I used to hate those places with a passion...?)

Anyway, to continue the money theme, I've spent a large part of today dealing with money. I've set out a basic plan of setting up an IRA, converting my existing savings account to a money market account with a better interest rate, putting some money in a one-year CD through Capital One's online banking services (top 3 in terms of high rates nationally, and a very stable bank according to multiple services), and finally investing some in either stocks or mutual funds. To work toward the IRA and investing, I set up an account on etrade.com and started examining the wide variety of options they offer. I also checked my credit report online for my free annual check.

Again, money's the big theme. Interwoven with geography and money have been Berlin (I've been catching up on some reading and now need to catch up on writing), family (we went to the UT Experiment Station today!), food (of course), and photography (I want a Nikon D90!)

The girls at the experiment station.

I kind of doubt I'll post again during the break, but suffice it to say that tomorrow will be spent out in Jackson with Karen and catching up with my Germany buddy Tracy Shelton and his wife, and work on the Berlin research. (Hopefully I'll get some photos posted to Flickr soon, either of Berlin stuff I've been meaning to upload or of new stuff from this fall.)

Exciting stuff, I know!

A Break Down of Physical Geography Class

I hate to dwell on a subject like this for too long, but since I haven't blogged in a while and I'm sitting in class "learning" about water...why not share this misery with the world?

Since we are in a geology lab for class, the desks are lab desks that are arranged in a large "E" shape. From where Dr. Shem normally stands at the computer stand/podium, 7 of the 13 students sit with their backs to him. At least three or four look like they are about to fall asleep. In fact he just asked two of them if they wanted to listen to him or sleep. I'll wager that they wanted to answer, "Sleep."

We have a football player who pays attention roughly half the time. There are four students across the room who are multitasking, working on other homework or projects while half-paying attention.

There are two of us with laptops, and we're both half-paying attention, too.

I know it sounds bad.

But if you were required to take a course that covered basic high-school-level science with a few "collegiate" concepts (primarily mathematic, how novel a concept!) thrown in, and the professor was neither well organized nor good at holding students' attention, don't you think you might not like the class?

We've reached the point in the class where I've now realized that he has nothing to add to the knowledge base of this subject over the text book. I could really just read the textbook before the test and be fine in this class. If you throw in my existing knowledge of the subject matter from previous classes (high school biology, Geology 111 and 113, and Intro to Meteorology) I could teach myself physical geography...

I have a feeling that Dr. Shem might not fair to well on the course evaluations at the end of the semester.

Half a Month Later...

How can it possibly be August 9 already?

Things have been really, really busy since coming back from Berlin. Catching up on sleep. Catching up on work. Catching up on Karen-time. You get the idea.

Work has been insanely busy. I have updated a ton of Web sites in the last two weeks: Psychology, ECCE, ITC, Financial Aid, Honors Program, Visual and Theatre Arts, etc. The last two weeks have been the final weeks of my co-student worker, Hannah Burcham, who is going to Mississippi State University with the National Student Exchange program. In the mean time, we've been training her highly capable replacement, Jen DeYeso in all of the wonderful jobs (and the tedious ones, too) we take care of on a daily basis at the ITC. Mix into this helping the occasional professor who wanders over for help, working on the registrations for three different training topics coming up in August and September, and planning for the training session I am doing this coming Tuesday — you get the idea of how busy it's been.

I've also spent some time working on the TNGIC summer newsletter, getting together the stories we will be covering for the end-of-August publication. Now I need to start laying it out in InDesign this week before things get even more hectic with The Pacer and that little thing called school.

Speaking of my favorite newspaper, I worked the last few days of this week with The Pacer's adviser, Tomi Parrish, on buying the remaining iMacs we need to fully handle our computing needs for the coming years. The good thing about these Macs is that we should be able to get a lot more use out of them than we've been getting out of the PCs we've used for years. Now they just have to be shipped and have software ghosted onto them by the Technical Services folks and brought over to our office. I'm looking forward to kicking off the new year with lunch and training on August 18. Then we start working on our First Flight edition for the incoming freshmen...and then off we go!

In other news, Karen and I have discovered the addicting Web site Nutrimirror — an online food journal that can really help ANYONE trying to eat healthier. As Karen saw on a newscast on her Destin vacation, keeping a food journal is one of the best ways to eat healthier and get/stay in shape. Nutrimirror is doing just that, and with time it should be a big help.

Finally, with all this going on a few of my other projects are still hounding me to start/finish them, including: more research and reading on my Scholars project, a photo-video for a wedding at the end of August, posting more photos from Berlin, and buying my books from Amazon/Half.com. Anything else...? This is more than I can keep up with in my head. Good thing I have to-do lists!

Post-Berlin

I am back!

And now with nearly one whole day behind me since flying back yesterday, I feel like I'm recovering nicely from any jetlag.

My travels to get here were certainly interesting, as some of you have already heard. For those who don't know, I almost had to spend the night in Amsterdam yesterday after I was put "on standby" when I got to the AMS airport. When I checked in at Tegel Airport in Berlin the check-in people couldn't give me a boarding pass for the flight from Amsterdam to Memphis, so they told me to go to the transfer desk at AMS. As it turns out, there are 8 transfer desks at AMS, but I quickly figured out with a transfer desk near the beginning of every specific gate hallway (B through H and M) and assumed that I should go to the desk for the gate of my flight (E9).

I was correct, and stood in line at the desk for nearly half an hour just to have the attendant tell me that they overbooked the flight because they have so many transfers (whatever that means) and that at that point I didn't have a seat on the plane. She told me to go to the gate and go through security (at the gate) and that at the desk for that flight they would try to get me a seat. I wasn't the only one waiting; four other people were currently seatless. One guy who looked like a business traveler got his seat fairly quickly, within about five minutes of sitting down. Then about 15 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time the other three got seats, and I was the last person waiting. Finally, after all the last two or three last-minute passengers showed up and went through security, the staff found me a seat. I then went into the tunnel to get on the plane (nearly the last in line) and as I waited a stewardess came up the tunnel from the plane asking for a Mr. Cook. She changed my seat on the spot in pen, as I assume someone had the seat they assigned to me.

In the end, it was a great seat. I had the aisle seat on the second row of the economy class seating, which meant that I was one of the first to get food and drink service and was one of the first people off the plane in Memphis. The flight itself was pretty much uneventful, if not a little annoying because my "neighbor" in the window seat next to me was a 9 or 10 year old boy whose family (of 4 other kids plus his mom) were somewhere in the back of the plane. The first several hours were the annoying part, as he kept the window shade up, letting in the blinding sunlight on the video screens. I eventually switched to my iPod (for as long as its battery would hold out) and eventually went to sleep. The service was great, the food was better than usual, and the flight arrived in Memphis about 40 minutes early, so on the whole I can't complain.

After riding to Jackson with Mom and Dad, we ate at Chik-fil-a and went to Granny and Pop's house for dessert and to get the key to Anita's house were I spent the night. I've been doing laundry, working on photos, and entertaining myself online while waiting for them to get back from their Destin vacation. They should get back at 6:15 according to their borrowed GPS. Only 37 more minutes to go!

Berlin Days 12 and 13 - Last Days

The last two days have flown by as I have prepared both to see Barack Obama and to fly home. Yesterday I spent most of my day in and around the Tiergarten as I took pictures and looked at the "Diplomatic Quarter." I then went to see what the setup around the Siegessäule for Obama speech today. They had most of the barricades in place but foot and bike traffic could still get through, which meant that we on foot (or bike) had the entire Strasse des 17. Junis to walk down by ourselves without cars! It was pretty neat. After observing tourists for a while around the Brandenburg Gate (and eating Dunkin' Donuts) and the Bundestag (and looking at the NBC platform where I assume Brian Williams led the nightly newscast) I headed back into the Tiergarten for a while for more pictures and then came back to the hotel.

Today I finished up last minute shopping and got most of my packing done this morning. I left the hotel at 2 p.m. (five hours early) to get ready for Obama's speech. When I got off the Unter den Linden S-bahn stop I came up from the stop into a crowd of people. They were all crowded around the Hotel Adlon where Obama stayed and was supposedly leaving soon. After standing around for nearly 30 minutes I decided it wasn't worth the wait, so I started walking down Strasse des 17. Junis until I reached the barricade where people were starting to wait to go through security. That was nearly 3 p.m.

After standing around for an hour, they opened the barricade where the crowd then RAN to get to security off to the sides of the street. Security took around 15 minutes to get through (as they hand searched every bag, made you take pictures with cameras to prove they weren't bombs, drink from bottles to prove it wasn't gasoline or explosives...) and then I made it to a good spot less than 15 yards from the podium. After noticing a lot of people around me sitting, I decided to join the sit. After all, it was going to be another 3 hours till Obama spoke. I started to listen to people around me, three 20-something Americans who have lived in Berlin for around four years. They were very interesting to listen to, though I didn't talk to them for a while. A live band was playing off to the side of the Siegessäule pumping lots of loud bass into the crowd.

Obama started speaking about 15 minutes late and spoke for around 30 minutes. Read about it here at CNN.com.

After the speech I worked my way through the thousands of people to a spot where a lot of people were cutting through the Tiergarten to Potsdammer Platz, where I sat for supper in Sony Center before coming back here.

Tomorrow I check out and fly out of Berlin at 10:20 a.m., and then again from Amsterdam at 2:05 p.m. I'll be getting back to Memphis around 4:50 p.m. See you all soon!