The Weekend Festivities

This Sunday I will be 31. I haven't necessarily finalized the plans for the weekend, but here's the general idea.

Friday - From 6-11 PM is the birthday bash in Webster Hall. It should prove to be a fun time. By the time that's over, I will want to be going to bed.

Saturday - Sleep in! Yay. Get some good video game action in during the day and then make my way to Mequon, WI with Christa to have a birthday dinner with my parents. I am not sure where to go, but Porterhouse is always a good default restaurant. Drive back late Saturday.

Sunday (the big day) - Attend church in the morning. Enjoy some great football games in the afternoon. The Packers play the Chiefs at noon. The Patriots and Colts play in the late game. I am thinking Christa and I will grab dinner out after that. Then, it's off to E-Board and duty. I look forward to a duty night of giving out candy for my birthday. Should be fun!

Mission Accomplished

Many things were accomplished this weekend. I managed to complete 6 of 8 documents for the psychological assessment. I have made a pretty good dent in the other two, but they will take some time. I am hoping to complete them by the end of next weekend so that I can schedule an appointment for the assessment before the end of the year.

I managed to clean the apartment and do a good deal of filing. I need to make sure that it stays clean throughout the week for the party. Christa and I can do a pretty good job of messing up the apartment throughout the week.

I also managed to earn my one promotion in Halo and 3 and getting pretty close to another one. You can read about this in the new application I added to my blog. I am hoping to get in some Halo 3 time on Tuesday. Most of tonight will be spent watching the Packer's Monday Night Football game.

I also purchased Guitar Hero 3 for the XBox 360. Very fun...I am starting on easy and working my way up. It should be a fund addition to the upcoming birthday celebration!

Everybody's Working for the Weekend

This coming weekend I will be the Residence Hall Directory on duty for the weekend. So, I can't leave the city of Oshkosh. Usually, these are productive weekends because I am around so much. This weekend will be no exception.

On the To-Do list for the weekend:

• Finishing the various checklists, inventories and assessments for the ministry psychological assessment.
• Working on the ministry candidacy guidebook.
• Play some serious Halo 3 (yeah, it's on the to-do list)
• Do a serious cleaning job on the apartment in preparation for the birthday party.

That should be enough. It will be busy, but fun!

The Power of Packer Games

I am a fan of the Green Bay Packers. I enjoy watching their football games. Unlike the Brewers and Bucks, I am not a fair-weather fan. I have watched the Packers both when they have been good and when they've been terrible.

As a member of our church choir, we have sometimes done a special Christmas Cantata concert in December. When we schedule this concert, we were very conscious about making sure that it was not scheduled during a Packer game. One time, they scheduled it during a game and their attendance was way down.

Not necessarily being in a position before where I needed to schedule events, I now think about Packer games when I schedule anything. In fact, The minute the Packer schedule comes out, I add it to my Palm so that I don't schedule anything over it.

What are your thoughts? Should you schedule (or re-schedule) an event because it would conflict with a Packer game?

31st Birthday Party

The publicity is officially making its way out. The 2nd Annual Birthday Celebration is on! I will be celebrating my 30th+1 birthday in the Webster Lobby & RHD Apartment. It will be taking place from 6:00-11:00 PM on November 2, 2007.

Here is the Facebook invitation if you use it:
http://uwosh.facebook.com/event.php?eid=6885468627

Please let me know if you want to come to the celebration.

Stay Tuned

Sorry folks...it has been awhile since I have posted and I am afraid it may be a few days before I post work has kept me rather busy, plus obligations outside of work have also kept me busy. Once I catch up on work and sleep, the posts should become a little more regular.

Hmm...

So, the "Goat Pack" claim that the upcoming "Running of the Goats" (read Bar Crawl) can promote responsible drinking in a relaxed, fun environment. Check out the lead story. Safe drinking...right.

Uncertainty

Among the many great tings that come with being an RHD, I have always appreciated the fact that I have some real job security. I feel like I do the RHD job pretty well, so I don't fear losing my job anytime soon. In my first few years as an RHD, it felt good to be settled into a job and not think about moving somewhere in a year or two.

I now find myself in the same situation I was in my last year on both graduate school and undergraduate. There is some uncertainty about where I am going to be next year. I may be back in the same position I have now. I may be in another residence hall. I may be a pastor at a church either part time or full time. I may do none of the above and do something else until I get a better sense of what the future holds.

Unlike the other two times, I don't look to the future with a great deal of fear. Something will work out and I will find gainful employment. If anything, I am excited to discover where I will end up. My gut tells me that I need a change in my career path, but I don't know for sure when that will be happening.

If you want the latest information, this is where you are going to get it.

Accomplishments

I am preparing paperwork for the Psychological Assessment (and, wow, there is a lot of paperwork) and one of the exercises that I need to complete involves recalling 25 accomplishments in my life. Of those, I need to describe in detail 5 of those accomplishments.

Interestingly enough, I was having a little trouble coming up with them. I'm not exactly sure where that comes from. I could have high standards for accomplishments. I could be really humble. I could have a bad memory. I may not really think about them that much. It's probably some combination of them all, but with emphasis on the last one. It's not something I think about that much...except maybe for when I prepare a resume.

After some time and thought, I came up with the list. My greatest accomplishment was getting married. There was definitely a process involved with that and it ran the gamut of emotions. As hard as it was, my time As Staff/Parish Relations Chair was probably one of the toughest, but was also very rewarding. The funniest was seeing Star Wars Episode I at 12:01 AM...it's first possible showing. I saw the most anticipated film of my lifetime.

I took the top five and will now write about them in detail for the assessment folks. This process is really reflective...it brings back memories of graduate school.

Weekend Recharge/RHD Ratings

On Friday early afternoon, I made my way home a for a few days away from Webster Hall and the Gruenhagen Conference Center. It was wonderful! It wasn't necessarily my most active 48 hours. I mostly sat in the basement and played Oblivion. I haven't touched the game in awhile, so it was nice to revisit the game and try some new quests I hadn't done before. Otherwise, I had the opportunity to catch up with my parents and recharge I slept plenty and was able to relax.

On Sunday I was able to watch a Packers victory, clean the apartment and catch up on filing in the apartment. I felt much more prepared to begin the week.

...I would point out that I didn't exactly get off to a good start when my alarm went off at 6:30 this morning, but the volume was turned off. Someone else who lives in my apartment said he or she may have been the one who turned it off. Hmmm.

* * * * * * * * *
As I was checking out my fantasy scores (1st place, baby!) and other NFL scores and updates, I also happened to check the coach ratings and ranking. This made me wonder. Wouldn't it be cool if they did the same thing for A/RHDs?

Each week, a cross-section of residents would be interviewed and would rate A/RHDs in different areas. The approval ratings would then be posted in the building for all to see. Big week of conduct in the building...ouch! Jim takes a big hit in the polls. Jim wears a dress for Homecoming? Big jump in the polls.

Ok...maybe I only think of these things.

Thursday is the New Friday

I am taking tomorrow off as a vacation day. I am looking forward to sleeping in and spending a new days in Mequon. It will give me an opportunity to try out NBA Live 2008 as well as continue work on my ministry candidacy process. I have quite a few forms to fill out before I can move on and schedule my psychological assessment.

A New Beginning

Tonight was the first night that I got to hang out with my new match for Big Brothers Big Sisters. His name is Isaac and he is in the 7th grade. We weren't exactly sure what we were going to do tonight and he mentioned going to the YMCA. We eventually made our way to the Y and we were shooting hoops.

While shooting hoops, we were approached by some other kids in the gym and they wanted to know if we were interested in playing basketball with them. We ended up playing a 4 on 4 game full court. I would say the oldest kis was maybe 15-16 and most were much younger.

This presented an interesting moral dilemma for me. I was taller than most of the kids, but not all of them. I was easily not as skilled as many of the kids. But...I was stronger than all of them. I had to be careful not to bowl a kid over. So, it was fun and good exercise.

Isaac seems like a good kid. He has lots of interests and he is talkative. It should be fun.

Halo 3 Report

As I reported in a comment to my Friday post, I managed to complete the Halo 3 game on the "normal" level. There is still the "heroic" and "legendary" level to go if I'd like to. I managed to get 450 achievement points throughout the weekend as I finished the campaign mode and ventures into the realm of on-line play.

The story mode was quite compelling, but also pretty short, as many have explained in their reviews of the game. It was challenging, but I was actually able to complete it. I can't imagine completing the game on the higher two levels.

On-line play was humbling. I would need to invest some serious playing time to be serviceable in this area. I am amazed as to how rude people can be in their comments in on-line play. I suppose when you don't have to look someone in the eye, you can feel more comfortable saying things that aren't so nice.

I don't think I'll end up buying this game any time soon. I may pick it up in a few months when some used copies come available or if the price goes down. We'll see.

Other News

• My parents came up for Homecoming on Saturday. We watched the first half of what ended up being a UWO Titan victory.
• I will be going old school this week and replaying some old games to mop up old achievements. Game #1 is Oblivion. :)

Halo 3

This weekend I will finally have the chance to play one of the most anticipated games ever, Halo 3. As you can see, the game has already gotten a lot of reviews, and mixed reviews at that. Our school paper even threw in its own review.

As part of the Healthy Titans program, I am working with a student physical training. He let me borrow his copy of the game. I am not a big fan of first-person shooter games, but I want to give it a whirl. So many of my friends are playing it...I'd like to be a part of the action.

I'll let you know my thoughts on Monday.

Choir Renaissance

First United Methodist Church Oshkosh recently hired a new Choir Director has now held two weeks of rehearsals. We will be performing in church this coming Sunday. We will be seven strong and we will sing the best we can. I am sure that the congregation will be very excited to have a choir back in the service.

I was really sad when I looked around the church and saw who was singing. Many faces were not among those practicing. We lost may of our best voices as our church struggled with issues between our current pastor and our director of music. As a result of her leaving the church and her position, we lost almost every section leader or strong voice. As a result, our choir is small and not too confident...but we are filled with a lot of spirit.

I am happy that the choir is singing again and that we have a young and energetic choir director. She is in the same position that I was in her age. I think we will be able to accomplish some great things...we will just need to be strong recruiters.

I am saddened at how people view membership of the church and the role they play in the church. In Christianity, there is only on church, the church of Christ. We may all belong to our own churches, but they are just buildings. All Christians are part of one church no matter what their denomination. I wish people could get over their own petty squabbles and look beyond themselves. What can we do to further the church? How can I be a better Christian?

Let's get over the "I'm taking my toys and leaving" mentality. *sigh*

AFLAC Humor

I really don't have anything profound to say today. I thought I would share a couple of funny commercial links. Anyone who watches sports of Fox Sports Network (FSN) knows that they have the AFLAC trivia question. AFLAC is an insurance company that has some funny commercials involving a white duck.

This first one highlights a goat representing another insurance copy.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gtBirwSpLJY

This one involves the AFLAC duck as well as Yogi Berra.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=O-EZf56AfYc

The commercials have become a little stale as of late, but these two will always be funny to me.

Bulletin Board Renaissance

When I was a Community Advisor back in 1999, I used to hate making bulletin boards. In the Scotts, I only had to do one bulletin board, but even that was torturous for me. I haven't had to make a bulletin board since :).

To be a good team player this year for hall government, I decided that I would enter the rotation of bulletin boards that the hall leaders put together in Webster Hall.

To the left here, you will see my contribution. It is a bulletin board that allows the residents of 3rd floor to learn more about their hall director. If you click on the picture and zoom in, you should be able to read the text and see the pictures.

This was actually a lot of fun to do and given all the stuff going on right now, it was actually quite therapeutic. I am actually looking forward to making another bulletin board.

Packer Poll Results

Well, the people have spoken:

• One person said the Packers would have 4-6 wins.
• Four people said the Packers would have 7-9 wins.
• Four people said the Packers would have 10-12 wins.

Based on the current state of the 2007-2008 Green Bay Packers (4-0), it is entirely possible for them to finish out very well. Before the season started, I assumed that the Packers would be either 0-4 or 1-3. I am glad to wrong and should probably continue to think that they will lose...it seems to work in their favor.

Congratulations to Brett Favre, who broke the record for most career TDs. It's excellent, but you have to wonder how long it will last with Tom Brady and Peyton Manning putting up some amazing numbers.

Go Packers, you're all we have until the Bucks start playing...who knows what they'll do.