Interesting Quote

I was reading the latest edition of the American Enterprise, and they had an interesting interview with Shelby Steele. For a complete transcript of the interview, click here.

I was really intrigued by a few quotes that I wanted to throw out there for discussion:

TAE: Should Affirmative Action be abolished?
STEELE: Affirmative Action and all of its sundry manifestations should be completely eliminated. It stigmatizes all blacks, and it's not voluntary. One of the real cruelties of affirmative action is that whether we want it or not, it is imposed on us, simply because of the color of our skin. You don't get to opt out.

You shouldn't be able to go onto campus and have a separate black graduation ceremony, a separate black student union, a black studies department. Why do I get all these racial things, but you can't have them? Why?

TAE: How does political correctness affect black Americans?
STEELE: Political correctness is an outgrowth of white guilt. It's a way for guilty-feeling whites to constantly indicate that they're not racist, not colonialists, not imperialists, not warmongers, and so on. It's a kind of ritualization of life by which some whites free themselves of the stigma that history has left them. History has left whites stigmatized as racists, just like blacks were stigmatized as inferior. Both of those are irrational conclusions, but that's how stigma works. And political correctness is the way to address that.

Thoughts?

Key Lady

Hehehe...my fiance Christa will be the new Residence Life Key Coordinator for the Department of Residence Life at UW Oshkosh. That is pretty exciting. Think of all the devilish things I can do with access to keys...kidding...kidding...seriously...well, mostly O:-). Honestly, do you think Christa would ever let me do anything like that. Nope.

Cube-Itz, Part 2

Again, we are victorious in Cube-itz. We topped out total of 17 from the first game, scoring 20 points this time. The other team scored 5. This time we got a free large pizza from Toppers. WE are going for the three-week domination next week. They won't let us stay on after that :).

Spring Shenanigans

After getting out of my 3.5 hours worth of meetings this morning, I now realize that the craziness of the last 7 weeks of the semester begins. In addition to writing scholarship recommendation letter and "Of the Year" awards, I also need to start on my closing task list, start working with my staff for next year, finish up my OPE wrap-up report and somehow also keep up to date on paperwork within the building. Huzzah!

Ticket Season

March 27, 2006 - Jim gives out two parking tickets. NBC RHD Parking Space Ticket Season has begun.

Mazes and Monsters

While at the ACPA Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana I had the opportunity to do some shopping in a Sam Goody store that was going out of business. In my many purchases, I managed to find a $5.00 copy of the movie Mazes and Monsters. I had heard many rumors that this was the movie from the 1980s that started a lot of the scare about Dungeons and Dragons.

I sat down to watch the movie this last Saturday with Peter and and two other folks that I know play Dungeons and Dragons. I don't even know where to begin...this movie was awful. Luckily, the running commentary from the four of us made this movie bearable.

Sadly, the people that wrote the movie do not even understand the basic rules of Dungeons and Dragons...but this does not surprise me. The redeeming part of the movie is hearing a very young Tom Hanks say, "There's blood on the knife!"

Cube-itz

Peter and Dave asked if I would join them to play an 80s Game Show on our campus station called Cube-itz. Granted, I grew up in the 80s, but I wasn't sure how much information I would know in a quiz-style format. Well, we taped the show and needless to say we completed dominated the competition. We actually scored more points than any other team has scored before. We probably should point out the Peter and I grew up in the 80s and we're competing against people that were born near the end of the 80s....oh well.

It was a good time and I was not as much of a liability as I thought I would be.

70th Post!

Who would have thought? This is my 70th post to the blog. I am impressed that I have managed to keep this thing going this long. I am currently blogging from the internet kiosk at the ACPA 2006 Conference in Indianapolis, IN. I am operating on only about 3 hours sleep (at best recollection) so I apologize for any errors that you might find.

So far it's been nice...sadly I am suffering from a little "hall" withdrawal. It feels strange to not be around when the building is opening. I know my staff will do well in my stead. :)

After I finish this entry, I will likely be heading over to the mall to do some shopping; the meat of the conference does not begin until tomorrow. I have a nice array of sessions laid out and I am looking forward to it.

Peace all, and I will talk to you later.

Bleh...

I have been sick all week. I only have myself to blame because I have been working and moving around this week...when I should be in bed resting. I actually think I turned the corner today and things should be getting better.

TurboTax

Needless to say, this is a wonderful tool. It took at 45 minutes to complete my taxes and it only cost me $40.00. This is the first time in my life that I did my taxes completely by myself. For a long time, my father did my taxes and for the last two years, I had my taxes done for free at the Oshkosh Public Library. So...it was a great feeling to do my taxes myself...however, let's hope I didn't screw something up :).

UWO Outstanding Young Alumni

I am very excited to say that one of my fellow RHDs has decided to nominate me for the UWO Outstanding Young Alumni Award. While it would be incredible to receive one of these awards, I am just excited to be nominated for the award. It also serves as a motivation for me to update my resume, which I haven't touched in a long time.

Star Wars Battlefront II

Already my Spring Break has been pretty active. On Saturday night, I was dealer for a poker game that involved 7 different friends of mine. It was a unique mixture of folks and it went until 1:30 in the morning, but it was a lot of fun. Earlier that day, I had the opportunity to hang out with Nick, Jason and Tom..we got fitted for our suits for Nick's wedding.

Sunday was definitely a day of rest. While doing 4 load of laundry and cleaning my apartment, I can say that I played at least 5 hours of Star Wars Battlefront II. Fear not, for I was not playing all at once...I would play for awhile and then move to something a little bit more productive. But during that 5 hour span, I was impressed by the strategies and powers that I gained in the playing; it actually felt like I was learning something new...it's really not that profound, because after all, it is a video game. With the spirit of learning at hand, I even tried learning how to do fancy dunks in NBA Live 2005, with less success, but the spirit was there. I do feel this need to revisit many of the games in my collection.

Christa is working from 6:00 am tomorrow to 6:00 pm. That should give me some time tomorrow to get some work done...I have a lot of work to do over break...

A Time to Catch Up

It is Friday morning and at 8:00 pm this evening, Breese Hall closes for the "Spring" Break holiday. I realize that it is not really spring, although the temperatures are a little warmer. Regardless, I am looking forward to a week off from work. This year's spring break will be more subdued that the 3,000+ mile, 7 state tour that occurred last year. I think I am still recovering from that trip...while fun, I don't see myself ever taking part in something like that ever again.

Honestly, this week's break will consist of catching up on some RHD work, some personal filing and some church activities. A working spring break is not ideal, but I think I will be able to focus better without the day to day responsibilities of the RHD position.

Thus, I encourage you to give me a call next week. I will actually be around and will not have as much going on in my life. I will be calling people and looking to catch up.

Ramblings and Loose Ends

I have a variety of thoughts that I would just assume combine into one post:

The more I talk to folks about the incident in the basement of Breese Hall where I told some folks to change their music, the better I feel about that decision.

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Sorry to disappoint, but I did not do any on-stage singing for last night's Pat McCurdy concert at the Fratello's Lounge. Maybe in April...

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As I become more involved in my church, I suppose I make a false assumption in thinking that I work with mature adults. I serve on a committee that deals with very confidential information, something that I emphasize before each meeting. I recently found out from my pastor that someone not even on my committee relayed intimate details of our meeting...which concerned our pastor. How infuriating is that? I have thought, prayed and relfected about this and I can move on.

Reading the Message

As I reflected upon the purpose of Lent, I realize that there is a lot of emphasis on "giving something up" for Lent. Lent is a time of mental preparation for the celebration of the Easter festival. Last year, I decided to give up soda and that was actually an interesting experience in sacrifice. I learned something from the experience and I appreciate self-denial can help in the preparatory feeling of Lent.

This year, I decided to go a different route. Instead of giving something up, I decided to add something new. I have begun a ritual of reading part of the Bible each day. This is something I plan on keeping up after Lent. I am currently reading from the Pedersen The Message translation of the Bible. I decided to start with the New Testament. This is the longest span I have read the Bible in a row...ever. Sad in a way, but also exciting. :)

Visitors

The last few days have been wonderful because I have had the chance to catch up with many, many folks because of the Oshkosh Placement Exchange and various spring breaks. While nice to see so many faces, it is also frustrating because you only get to see them for a brief amount of time...they either need to head to their next interview or the next stop on their tour. Regardless, it has been energizing to see former residents, co-workers, professors, cohort members and friends throughout the last week.

Having now been at Oshkosh as a RHD for almost three years, I am amazed at the amount of students that I see that have graduated from UW Oshkosh who are pursuing jobs or graduate degrees in student affairs.

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I did not watch the Oscars, nor did I really care. I don't put a lot of stock in the Academy Awards anymore. If Shakespeare in Love & Forrest Gump can win best picture, than I struggled with the choices that they make.

Censorship

With the busyness of OPE at hand this previous weekend, I had to delay the time I spend with my little brother (through Big Brothers/Big Sisters) until yesterday. We had determined the last time we got together that we were going to play pool in the basement of Breese Hall. We the equipment and headed down, only to find out that there were other folks hanging out in the basement.

I sometimes worry about how my residents will act to speak around my little brother. Well, as we began playing pool the hip/hop music playing over the basement stereo was not very youth friendly. It had frequent swearing and some other suggestive material. While I was willing to let it go for awhile, I eventually had enough and asked them if they could switch to something less vulgar. The response to me was, "He's heard it anyway." I insisted, and they said I could turn the music off. Even my little brother said it wasn't a big deal, but I insisted that if he was going to be in my presence, I want to make sure he is not being exposed to that stuff.

It saddens me to know how much stuff our children are exposed to and people don't seem concerned about it.

Lovely Weather

So, for those of you don't know, the Oshkosh Placement Exchange is going on at UWO. I am head of the Transportation Center and upon waking up this morning, I discovered a coat of ice on all of the vans. I would venture to say the ice was between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick. It obviously got really cold last night, but we also had a combination of sleet, freezing rain and hail. It made for a fun morning.

Things seem to be running smoothly with the center now. Barring some strange occurence, I think we should be OK. I am very happy with Mike and Dave the sit supervisors. Their relaxed approach to the job will be a good counterbalance to me ;). Also, we have hired a wonderful array of workers for the center. They will be a fun and hard-working group.

Be warned that you may not hear from me until Monday...it is going to be a busy next couple of days. :)

New Office

After much construction, frustration and movement of stuff...my new office in Breese Hall is finally complete. It looks really nice and my new desk is truly huge! I will be posting pictures of the new office on my Facebook page, so you will want to check it out.