Final Dispatches from Dallas - A Night Out that I Skipped

Monday night at the National Orientation Directors Association (NODA) was the 6th Annual NODA Night Out. This would involve going to some local establishment for food, fun and fellowship (okay, this wasn't exactly a Sunday School convention, so maybe that wasn't a completely accurate description). This event was heavily hyped and it sounded like it could be fun . . .until I read between the lines. This wasn't NODA Night Out. This was NODA night OUT. Place the emphasis on the OUT, you know, as in exiting from a closet.

I stayed in the hotel room and watched Monday Night Football.

Dispatches from Dallas - A Couple Blocks from History

Dallas is a very non-descript city. Nothing about it stands out. It's in the southwest, but doesn't have the distinct southwest "look" that you'd find in Arizona or New Mexico. All in all, a rather drab city. Don't care if I ever come back here. The conference has been great, but the city itself, don't care for it.

A couple days ago we left the hotel and walked towards downtown. As we reached a certain point I was like, "uh, this looks familiar." Sure enough, we were right in Dealey Plaza, which was just a couple blocks from the hotel. I looked up and there was where Oswald shot (okay, Oliver Stone, allegedly shot) JFK that fateful day almost 44 years ago. The whole area seemed smaller than I was expecting. The School Book Depository Building was not all that large and the 6th floor not all that high up and yes. The motorcade would have been very close so I can easily agree with the single shooter theory. Of course, I could also see how someone could have been hidden in the "grassy knoll." Hmmm.

The 6th floor of the depository building has been turned into a museum now, and just down the block is the JFK "conspiracy museum." I didn't visit either one, as I've pretty much read and seen everything there is about this event. But it did hold a certain fascination to be right there where such a watershed moment in our history took place.

Dispatches from Dallas

I am in Dallas right now at the National Orientation Directors Association (NODA) annual conference. It's all professional staff and students that work in college orientations. I'm one of a handful from Indiana. There are several Purdue colleagues and some from IU Bloomington. It's been a good conference thus far, except for a horrible keynote speaker that tried to be motivational but struck me more as Chris Farley's motivational speaker on SNL. She had us stand up and point to ourselves, and how we are the only ones who can change ourselves, to all take a step forward, and . . . . .GAG! How much they pay this woman to be here?

The rest of the time has been in breakout sessions with various topics all related to putting on orientation programs. I'll be going back to South Bend with a lot of good ideas. One area I'm looking very closely at is an online orientation to supplment our regular orientation. Although I'm also very cautious of it. In higher education, there's a huge movement to online and electronic delivery of information, which is good, but we can't lose the one on one interactions either. In fact, one colleague from the University of Iowa predicted that colleges are going so over the top with being online that it'll all eventually circle back to paper based methods. He may not be too far off. I've found that students want information available online, but when they are struggling with something and need answers, they want to talk to a real person.

Jumping the Shark

This term is used to describe a television show that hits an absolute low and never recovers. It gets it's name from an infamous episode of "Happy Days" where Fonzie jumped a shark on water skis. After that, the show allegedly never recovered.

I'm wondering if my favorite show "24" will do that now. One thing you can always count on with this show is that when someone is killed off, they are truly gone. However, when a show gets desperate, they start thinking how to creatively bring back characters that we saw die ("hey, they weren't really dead" or the ever reliable "it was a dream"). Well, this season, they are resurrecting Tony, who we all saw killed off in Season 5. I hope they handle it right, because that opens the door to "anything can happen" and what all took place previously doesn't matter. We'll see in January when the show returns.

ASU #4???

How did I miss this one? I keep up with both college and pro football. This has been a good year for the PAC 10 with USC, Oregon and Cal having great years. But after this last weekend, Arizona State University is #4? I swear I didn't even know they were ranked!

I frequented Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona several times when I lived out there. The best game I attended was ASU v. UCLA, when Troy Aikman led the Bruins to victory. ASU had some good teams in the late 80's and early 90's, but then pretty much dropped off the map. Now, they are back. I have a feeling, though, that they could quickly plummet. Their schedule hasn't been too tough and they'll be playing a lot of the good PAC 10 teams in the next few weeks. But for now, I'm excited to see them that far up in the rankings. It's been a crazy year in college football, because no one seems to stay on top for very long.

In Class with Anderson Cooper

In the freshman class I'm teaching, we are currently reading "Dispatches from the Edge," by Anderson Cooper. I'm enjoying reading the book and so far the students (none of whom has ever watched Anderson Cooper 360) are enjoying it too.

In our last class, the topic was the Asian Tsunami of 2004. Even though this event is less than 3 years old, it was surprising how little the students knew about it. After the class discussion that day, many commented that they didn't realize the extent of the disaster (over 200,000 dead). In fact, many of them weren't even completely aware what a tsunami was, so I spent time with a little science lesson describing it and played a CNN clip with Anderson Cooper reporting on the disaster.

Cooper has covered a lot of tragedies, and he's had his own share of tragedies in his life. His dad died at age 53 when Anderson was only 11. His older brother, Carter, died by jumping off the balcony of their 14th floor apartment . . .as his mother watched. His mother, by the way, is Gloria Vanderbilt.

I just didn't know all that about him. He's a very good writer, and thus far, the students have been pleasantly surprised at how much they've liked the book. This generation of student does not read a whole lot, so getting them to read an entire book will be an accomplishment in and of itself. Next up, we'll talk about Iraq and the siege of Saravejo.

Someone actually is less popular than Bush

Senator Harry Reid's approval rating in Nevada is lower than that of the President. Note to Senator Reid: People are more concerned with just about anything else than what Rush Limbaugh says on the radio. Why you felt it necessary to use the Senate floor to take up this cause, I have no idea.

I bet Reid was up all night with his advisors coming up with a positive spin after that letter sold for $2.1 million on Ebay. Dude, move on to the issues that, you know, people put you in power for.

Maybe it's Dutch

Anna came home and said she had been told of a new way of kissing at her elementary school. She first said, "I think it's called European, or maybe it's English." Her grandma said, "Do you mean French?" Ah yes, Anna confirmed that was it. She then went into detail as to what she was told it meant, and yeah, she had been given the correct definition.

This is one of those parental moments that on one hand is funny and on the other hand has you dreading what's still to come as she gets older.

Taking Praying for Everyone to a New Level

Each night at bedtime, Cameron likes us to pray with him out loud. Not sure why it started, but it's his thing (Anna is more of the silent prayer type). Anyway, Cameron will have one us pray first and then he takes his turn, and I'll tell you, he goes on and on and on like some Baptist minister.

He prays for everyone, and I mean everyone. He prays for God to "protect daddy and protect his heart, protect Uncle Stu and protect his heart, protect Lydia and protect her heart . . . ." and on and on through every family member, friend, and church member he can think of. Sometimes he throws in for God to protect the lions and zebras and other animals. He also likes to throw things in once in a while like "hoping daddy lets me have a cookie tomorrow" or "mom and dad let me go to a friends house." Sneaky little tyke.

One night, he was going through his usual long list of who to protect, but then added a more universal touch. Instead of going on to the next name, he paused then said, " . . . . and protect . . .everyone on this planet."

So that's what he does now, he just prays for everyone on the planet so he doesn't leave anyone out. That does help shorten things a bit, and at least I don't have to stand during this prayer.

Eight is Enough?

Our pastor and his wife recently announced they are expecting . . .their 8th child. Sarah is their oldest and is a junior in high school. Their youngest is Lydia and just entered Kindergarten. Wow, that's a lot of kids. We have two kids, two dogs, and a cat, which is plenty for us.

But you know what, if anyone should have more children, it's Pastor Greg and Cheryl. They are wonderful parents and their kids are so delightful. Lydia and Cameron are the best of buddies and it is really entertaining to watch them play together. Their other daughters, Becca and Hannah, get along great with Anna. In fact, we can have most of their kids at our house and you wouldn't even know they are there. They are extremely well-behaved and polite as all get out.

Great kids, great parents, but don't look for us to try and close the gap here. We're stopping with two, unless God has some surprises in store for us (which, by the way, is what happened with our pastor).

The Company you Keep

So now Marion Jones admits what she had been vehemently denying for years, that yes, she did use steroids. Jones was a star at the 2000 Olympics, winning 3 gold medals and seeming to have a long endorsement career. But the allegations started coming in fairly soon, and for years and years, she deinied any involvement. If she ever wondered why people suspected her, she should have taken a look at those around her.

First of all, at those same 2000 Olympics, her husband, who I believe was a shot putter, was disqualified for using banned substances. Even worse, before the Olympics, Jones had once trained with the same individual who trained Ben Johnson, the sprinter who lost his gold medal from the 1988 Olympics for steroid use. Finally, she was named in the whole BALCO thing, which first raised suspicion about Barry Bonds. Put all that together, and Jones wondered why she was perceived as being a cheater? Of course, turns out she was trying to fool us all along.

Kinda makes you more cynical anytime someone "categorically denies" involvement in such and such (i.e. Vick, Haggard, Rose, et al.). Just give it time and once the odds are stacked against them, they'll "come clean" and tell us all what we suspected all along.