Graduation Day Tomorrow

Christa graduates tomorrow from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh! She will be graduating with an education degree for biology and English. She will be participating in the afternoon ceremony at 2:00 PM in the Kolf Gym.

Christa will be completing seven years of college. She has weathered a few major changes as well as some bonus administrative hoops, and she has made her way to the finish line. It will be great to have the family up tomorrow to celebrate. After the ceremony, we will be heading to Player's for dinner.

Of course, even though she "graduates," she still has to go back for three more weeks of student teaching. On June 5, she will officially be done with all components of her undergraduate degree and her certification.

Changing of the Guard

With the new Sodexo contract for UWO, there have come some changes with food options on campus. The addition of a Pizza Hut Express has been great and I think students would agree that it is a vast improvement over the Stone Willy's pizza that was there before.

Recently, there has been discussion about some changes in the food options at the Union. Apparently Burger King is on the way out. This is probably for the best, as we have had a Burger King on campus since I was a student at UWO. The question becomes, what do you replace it with?

Well, Taco Bell, of course. There are rumors circulating that this was the original intent, but it did not work out. That is a real bummer because I was thinking for awhile of how cool it would be to have a Taco Bell in the Union. Panda Express is too expensive, but that would also have been really sweet.

So...the final decision? Kentucky Fried Chicken. *sigh* I was a little disappointed to hear about this choice. The menu will be decreased from the regular menu given the size of the space they would have to work with. KFC is not the most healthy option out there (as fast foods go) and it has a reputation for right animals rights violations. Students have already mobilized a petition to stop the KFC from coming in.

I will be curious to see how all this goes down. Students didn't seem dead set against a KFC, but nor did they seem super excited. Will student activism play a role as the year closes? We shall see.

The Post Semester Report

Hey folks! I know it's been awhile. The 14-week fall semester is over and UWO students now have a three week break until the three week fall interim. If they don't have an interim class, they have a seven week break! As a 12-month employee, I need to take vacation to have any time off. I will be taking the next two weeks off, but decided to do some work this week.

I would definitely say that motivation has been a struggle as there are no students around, but I have been productive in working ahead in working ahead on items that would have otherwise needed to be taken care of during interim.

Christa and I have officially signed up for Netflix as our two week trial has run out. I think being members of Netflix will allow us to watch more movie for less money. We really enjoy watching movies and we appreciate the flexibility Netflix offers. also having the option to watch movies instantly with the XBox 360 only sweetens the deal.

This Sunday, I will be participating in the performance of a Bach Cantata at our church service. I will be performing the bass solo and singing with the choir. Even though I haven't been able to sing in the choir throughout the semester, I was able to make the last few rehearsals because school being over. It has been nice to be back with the group. If my schedule isn't quite as crazy on Wednesdays, perhaps I can sing with the choir in the spring semester.

When I got the red ring of death on my XBox and had it fixed, they gave us a free month of XBox Live with it as well. I attempted to use it for Christa's account, but her original account got corrupted. We created a new one and we have been able to play Rock Band 2 on-line. She is going to rent a few games and try them out on the 360.

Having the next two weeks off will definitely free up some time to play some games that have come out recently. On my to play list:

1. Fallout 3
2. Call of Duty: World at War
3. Grand Theft Auto 4
4. Left 4 Dead
   

Fantasy Football Ends...

...well, at least it ends for me. Despite a furious attempt by DeAngelo Williams, who gained a whole bunch of yards and 2 TDs on Monday night, I lost in the first round of the playoffs 112.5-110. That was rough.

Again, though I feel as though with DeAngelo Williams, Thomas Jones & Tom Brady as my keepers for next year, things are looking pretty good! We'll see.

Other News:

1. So we did get hit with quite a bit of snow. It should be fun digging my car out of the snow bank.
2. The 14-week fall semester ends in three day. Yippee!
   

Summer Coming to a Close

It feels as though just yesterday that the students in the Titan Advantage Program (TAP) and the Project Success program moved into Webster Hall. On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, they move out. It is amazing how quick six weeks can go by. I have really appreciated the experience of the summer programs. It has been fun to get to know some of the future student at UWO and have it in an environment that is lower stress. I have also appreciated working with Dani, Adam, Nick and Chris as staff members in this process. They do amazing work and made my job much easier.

This morning, I had a nice informal chat with students who asked a lot of questions about the residence halls, involvement and the academic programs they will be involved in. It is conversations like that which remind me why I am an RHD. I forget who rejuvenating it can be to have a good conversation with a student that doesn't involve a conduct or disciplinary issue ;).

UW Oshkosh Dining Update

This past Saturday, I helped out in presenting the Campus Life component of the Odyssey presentations that we do for incoming first-year students. Also in this presentation, there is a discussion about food options available as well. I learned some new things along with the first-year students. A few things to keep in mind:

1. The Blackhawk To Go room will be open until 11 PM Monday - Thursday. I am a big fan of the chicken sandwiches offered here. I know there are other students that love it as well. I am glad to know there will be an alternative location to grab food later at night.
2. Scotty's (aka Stone Willy's or Stoner's) in Scott Hall will be a Pizza Hut Express. Pizza you can recognize! :) In addition to the pizza option, there will also be buffalo wings, bratwurst and subs. I can see this being a very popular options for college students. I also see this being an upgrade to the quality of pizza.
3. The 21 meal plan will have "flex" meals that can be used in the Clow Mi Tazas...I see this as an option that I will be using for lunches and Clow is right near by.

With a new food contract, I have already seen some positive changes. Let's hope they continue.

Other News: Saw Wall-E this weekend. Great movie! My only complaint is the big business/environmentalist/capitalism is bad messages found within the framework of the movie.

Rationing the Nuggets

Usually once every other week, Blackhawk offers chicken nuggets for lunch. Over the four years that I have been here, the nuggets have changed, um, designs if you will and have gotten decreasingly tasty. Yet, nugget day is still treated with reverence and I am still excited to get my ration of nuggets for lunch.

You read that right; I can go up and get my ration. The lunch folks are only allowed to give us a designated amount of nuggets. It fluctuates, but it's usually around 8-10 nuggets. These nuggets aren't all that big, so for me it's not too much of a lunch. If you ask for more nuggets, they will not let you have any more. However, if you are willing to go to the back of the line and you go through again, you can get another ration of nuggets. How does that work?

Is chicken nugget waste that much of a concern? If it is, I have not heard about it. I suppose I am not familiar with the going price of the chicken nugget, but I am amazed that it is expensive enough that is the one food that we need to limit consumption of.

I'm not sure what it is about these nuggets that makes them so good that we need to ration them. Four years ago, I might have been able to make the argument, but now, they're not that good. They don't even ration bacon, which to me might make more sense. I can understand that good bacon might be pretty expensive.

I wrote this article in lue of creating a Facebook group about. It's probably for the best.

"Growing Up"

I have always considered myself to be young at heart. In a way, I don't think I'll ever really "grow up" and I really like that. However, over the last few years I feel like I have really matured...which is different, but also similar to growing up. I think that's what I like about being an RHD. With the position comes great responsibility, but you also have the opportunity to work with students who keep you young and relatively current with what's in.

In my first few years at UWO, I felt like I briefly reverted back to being a stereotypical undergraduate students. I couldn't tell you exactly. Part of it had to do with who I was hanging out with. Part of it had to do with being in a position that offered more money that I ever had in my life. Part of it was maybe trying to fill a void in what may not have been a really social undergraduate experience for me. Part of it was still not having fully embraced the religion I had pushed away for so many years.

As a result, I actually drank quite a bit, went out to bars quite a bit and just generally acted foolishly more than I usually did (trust me, it wasn't that much). I used to think that it was OK to drink with undergraduate students, even ones I worked with. I didn't feel very happy about myself overall. Along with re-discovering God, I also realized that those behaviors didn't do me much good...in fact they actually could hurt me.

So now, I don't do those things much anymore...and I'm OK with it. In fact, I feel better about myself. I feel like that while not grown up, I have definitely progressed in adulthood. I have thought about my financial future, my career future, my relationship future (woot!) but yet I can still be young and play video games and live on a college campus.

Other News:

• Christa bought a second guitar for Guitar Hero. Good news! Although I ended up playing way more Guitar Hero than I should have yesterday...I got pretty tired of it by the end of the night.
• It amazes me sometimes that the interactions that I have with folks with the church are like the interactions I have with some college students. You would think sometimes that 60+ year old people would be able to handle situations with some maturity, but sadly this is not always the case.
• I bought NBA Live 2007 last night. I figured it's been two years since I bought the game, it would be nice to have the Bucks new roster. I will probably give a more in depth analysis in the future, but for now, these observations:

1. The Bucks are serverly underrated. They are listed as a 75 overall which is one of the worst in the league. This from a team predicted to make some waves in the East.
2. There are three buttons to shoot the ball: slam dunk, jump shot & lay-up. Huh?!? Why can't one's proximity from the basket determine this. So when I accidentally press "slam dunk" from the three-point line, it could get ugly.
3. On the easiest level, I was only winning by two points at halftime. They have definitely made this game tougher.
4. You better have a fast point gaurd or you are in trouble. Try playing with Mo Williams for a half.

Days Until the Wedding: 216

Homecoming 2006

Tomorrow I will be going to my first UW Oshkosh Titan football game. I have been a student at UWO for five year and I have been working at UWO as an RHD for four years. In that time, I have never gone to a game. It's hard to say why. Part of it is because I can't get into Division III sports. Part of it is because our team has a history of doing poorly. However, as a result of being on the Homecoming planning committee, I have taking an increased care in Titan activities. I am willing to give it a shot. The team is pretty good and it's about time I go to a game. It's gonna be really cold, but it should be fun.

Other News:

• I bought two Mendelsohn symphonies on I-Tunes. It feels good to purchase and listen to some classical music. Along with the fake feeling of sophistication, it just feels good to keep my musical tastes broad and not lose track of a wonderful body of literature.
• There will definitely be some mass Guitar Hero playing this weekend. Task #1: get 5 stars in all songs on the Medium Career mode (2 songs left); Task #2: complete career mode on Hard Career Mode: (7 songs left)