Unemployed but still hopeful

About 3 weeks ago I was called into my director’s office and told that my contract was not going to be renewed. Yes, folks, as of May 27th I am happily (well, maybe not so happily) unemployed.

It’s been interesting to say the least. Couple days after I was fired I went to a conference in Utah. I didn’t take pictures but let me tell you it rocked in so many levels! We had dinner at the Sundance Resort… the one owned by Robert Redford… wwny would have loved the place

I’m still working on the GRE and have applied for a job in Georgia.

If you’re interested you can look at my other two blogs:

Personal

Beginning of a Portfolio

Little over a year, think it’s time for an update

What’s up folks? I know I said I wasn’t going to post here but the occasional update is good to let those of  you whom I don’t see often enough know what’s up.

I think the biggest news is: Finally got off my butt and applied for Grad School. I am about 80% done with the PhD application for the Instructional Technology Program at the University of Georgia!.

It wasn’t an easy choice and those of you who know me know that it’s been a game of ping pong between applying and staying put. There have been changes at the University and I don’t really want to have to deal with them anymore. I’m also not getting any younger, this past march  marked the 14th anniversary of my arrival in the US (March 27th, 1994 at 0700 Eastern, and no, I’m not keeping track) so if I’m going to do it I better do it quickly.

Can you believe this?

From the VT website (http://www.vt.edu)

Campus remains closed; convocation Tuesday at Cassell

04/16/2007, Updated 3:40 p.m.

Two shootings on campus today have left 22 dead, including students and the gunman.

Counseling assistance for students in available at West Ambler Johnston and McComas Hall until 9 p.m. tonight. Students are encouraged to utilize these services.

Counseling for faculty and staff is available in the Bowman Room on the fourth floor of Jamerson Athletic Center, accessible from Jamerson or the Merryman Athletic Facility.

The university will remain closed Tuesday. Essential personnel are to report for work. Classes are canceled.

A public gathering will be held Tuesday at Cassell Coliseum at 2 p.m.

All students are urged to contact their parents as soon as possible to let them know individuals are safe.

Students, faculty, and staff who have any information related to the incident at West Ambler Johnston Hall and Norris Hall are encouraged to go to the Blacksburg Police Department to make statements, or call 540-231-TIPP (8477), or 231-6411.

More information will be released during a news conference at 4:30 p.m.

Get more details and a statement by President Steger >

At least 31 dead in rampage at Va. college

More than 20 others wounded in worst mass shooting in U.S. history
BREAKING NEWS
NBC, MSNBC and news services
Updated: 1:15 p.m. PT April 16, 2007

BLACKSBURG, Va. – A gunman killed 30 people in two shooting incidents Monday at a college in Virginia in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. The gunman also was killed, and at least 22 other people were injured.

“Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions,” said Charles Steger, president of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, in southwest Virginia. “The university is shocked and indeed horrified.”

President Bush said in a brief televised statement: “Schools should be places of sanctuary and safety and learning. … Today, our nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones at Virginia Tech.”

The shootings spread panic and confusion at the college. Witnesses reporting students jumping out the windows of a classroom building to escape the gunfire, which rang out just four days before the eighth anniversary of the Columbine High School bloodbath near Littleton, Colo., when two teenagers killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before taking their own lives.

Federal law enforcement officials told NBC News that the gunman was dead after he shot more than 50 people at two locations on campus. Thirty-one, including the gunman, were confirmed dead.

At least 22 others were being treated at Montgomery Regional Hospital in Blacksburg and Lewis-Gale Medical Center in Salem, the hospitals said. Six of the victims were in surgery, and five were reported in stable condition. The conditions of the 17 others were not immediately reported.

The name of the gunman was not released. Witnesses described him as a man in his 20s, wearing a maroon cap and a black leather jacket. A spokesman for the FBI in Washington said there was no immediate evidence to suggest it was a terrorist attack, “but all avenues will be explored.”

Silent gunman ‘just started shooting’
The man did not appear to be shooting at random, NBC News’ Pete Williams reported, quoting federal law enforcement officials. He seemed to have specifically targeted the two locations, a coeducational dormitory and an engineering classroom across campus.

Law enforcement officials said the gunman carried two weapons, a 9-mm pistol and a 22-caliber handgun, Williams reported. They said gunman chained the doors of the classroom building so his potential victims could not escape and police could not enter.

A student in the engineering class describe an “unreal” scene with “blood pretty much everywhere.”

“None of us thought it could have been gunshots,” the student, who identified himself as Trey Perkins, told MSNBC’s Chris Jansing in a telephone interview. “… I’m not sure how long it lasted. It seemed like a really long time.”
Perkins said the gunman never said a word. “He didn’t say, ‘Get down.’ He didn’t say anything.” He just started shooting.”

The gunman left the classroom and then tried to return, but students kept him out by bracing the door closed with their feet. “He started to try to come in again and started shooting through the door,” Perkins said, but hit no one.

“I got on the ground and I was just thinking, like, there’s no way I’m going to survive this,” Perkins said. “All I could keep thinking of was my mom.”

Until Monday, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history was in Killeen, Texas, in 1991, when George Hennard drove his pickup into a Luby’s Cafeteria and shot 23 people to death, then himself.

The deadliest previous campus shooting in U.S. history took place in 1966 at the University of Texas, where Charles Whitman climbed to the 28th-floor observation deck of a clock tower and opened fire. He killed 16 people before he was gunned down by police.

The rampage began about 7:15 a.m. ET at West Ambler Johnston, a coeducational residence hall that houses 895 people. The campus was still under lockdown, with students asked to stay indoors and away from the windows, when authorities got word of more gunfire about two hours later at Norris Hall, a classroom building.

Some but not all of the dead were students. One student was killed in the dorm, and the others were killed in the classroom, said Virginia Tech Police Chief W.R. Flinchum.

After Monday’s shootings at Virginia Tech, all entrances to the campus were closed. The university set up a meeting place for families to reunite with their children at the Inn at Virginia Tech. It also made counselors available and planned a convocation for Tuesday at the Cassell Coliseum basketball arena.

Campus, community left stunned
Jamal Albarghouti, a graduate student, said that instead of fleeing, he began shooting video footage on his cell phone.

“I’m from the Middle East, so I’m not used to this sort of thing, but I’ve been in similar situations,” Albarghouti told MSNBC-TV.

“I heard many gunshots,” perhaps 10 to 15 in just 30 seconds, he said. “I don’t know who made the shots, whether it was the cops or the shooter.”

Albarghouti and other students described a stunned campus and surrounding community after the shootings.

Derek O’Dell, a sophomore biology major, told MSNBC-TV that it was “very surreal.”

“At first, I thought it was joke,” O’Dell said. “You don’t really think of a gunman coming on campus and shooting people.”

Albarghouti said: “Everybody here is sad, and you can see that all over. … We are really looking forward to the end of this, when Blacksburg becomes a really nice town once again.”

Bomb threats last two weeks
Police said there had been bomb threats on campus over the past two weeks but that they had not determined a link to the shootings.

Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman, said President Bush was horrified by the rampage and offered his prayers to the victims and the people of Virginia.

“The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed,” Perino said.

It was second time in less than a year that the campus was closed because of a shooting.

In August, the opening day of classes was canceled and the campus was closed when an escaped jail inmate allegedly killed a hospital guard off campus and fled to the Tech area. A sheriff’s deputy involved in the manhunt was killed on a trail just off campus.

The accused gunman, William Morva, faces capital murder charges.

© 2007 MSNBC InteractiveNBC’s Pete Williams and Tamara Kupperman, MSNBC.com’s Alex Johnson, MSNBC-TV’s Chris Jansing and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18134671/

© 2007 MSNBC.com

What’s been up with me?

I know it’s been like forever since the last time I posted here in Xanga; However I love my new blog and I have much more control over it so I probably won’t be changing it any time soon or until I get my server at home as I’ve wanted to for a while

Work/Professional Life

What’s been up with me? I’m still working at CSU, Chico; still in the Academic Technologies department and still supporting WebCT (sorry, I still refuse to call it Blackboard) and Vista on our Campus. I’ve been tasked to take a larger leadership role in our Distance Education Delivery Classrooms and I’m still the person/gopher for all the other projects people decide that we’re going to do.

I’m also feeling misserable right about now. I’m feeling so burned out with the Learning Management System stuff that I would love to be doing that it’s not even funny. I’ve tried to move to other projects on the sly but my boss tells me that I’m needed where I am right now… and I don’t doubt it even for a second, but what about me?

I almost applied for a job in New  York, I think that the only thing that got me out of that frame of mind was my mom telling me that moving now would conflict with some other plans I have

Career

First thing in t he books is finishing my application to graduate school. Yes, boys and girls, I’m planning on moving to Georgia for Fall ’08 classes at the University of Georgia’s doctoral program in Instructional Technology. 4 more years of school and then finally be able to teach! It’s also another chance to do pure research in the areas I’m interested in doing… who knows, maybe I get to come back to California as a university professor

Ybarrola (my Anthropology prof at Central) now lives in Kentucky and I’ve been very strongly encouraged to go visit, or else

Longer term, I don’t know, I may want to teach or perhaps just do research and training

Christian Garnham and family

I was reminded again of this song fragment: El tiempo pasa, nos vamos poniendo viejos. El Amor no lo recuerdo como ayer. Talking with my friend reminded me of how quickly time passes and how little we do to actually keep the things that matter alive.

Here’s something to be scared about

Aug. 30, 2006 | 8:34 p.m. ET

Feeling morally, intellectually confused?

The man who sees absolutes, where all other men see nuances and shades of meaning, is either a prophet, or a quack.

Donald H. Rumsfeld is not a prophet.

Mr. Rumsfeldâs remarkable speech to the American Legion yesterday
demands the deep analysisâand the sober contemplationâof every
American.

For it did not merely serve to impugn the morality or intelligence
– indeed, the loyalty — of the majority of Americans who oppose the
transient occupants of the highest offices in the land. Worse, still,
it credits those same transient occupants — our employees — with a
total omniscience; a total omniscience which neither common sense, nor
this administrationâs track record at home or abroad, suggests they
deserve.

Dissent and disagreement with government is the lifeâs blood of
human freedom; and not merely because it is the first roadblock against
the kind of tyranny the men Mr. Rumsfeld likes to think of as âhisâ
troops still fight, this very evening, in Iraq.

It is also essential. Because just every once in awhile it is right and the power to which it speaks, is wrong.

In a small irony, however, Mr. Rumsfeldâs speechwriter was adroit
in invoking the memory of the appeasement of the Nazis. For in their
time, there was another government faced with true perilâwith a
growing evilâpowerful and remorseless.

That government, like Mr. Rumsfeldâs, had a monopoly on all the
facts. It, too, had the âsecret information.â It alone had the true
picture of the threat. It too dismissed and insulted its critics in
terms like Mr. Rumsfeldâs — questioning their intellect and their
morality.

That government was Englandâs, in the 1930âs.

It knew Hitler posed no true threat to Europe, let alone England.

It knew Germany was not re-arming, in violation of all treaties and accords.

It knew that the hard evidence it received, which contradicted its
own policies, its own conclusions â its own omniscience — needed to
be dismissed.

The English government of Neville Chamberlain already knew the truth.

Most relevant of all â it âknewâ that its staunchest critics
needed to be marginalized and isolated. In fact, it portrayed the
foremost of them as a blood-thirsty war-monger who was, if not truly
senile, at best morally or intellectually confused.

That criticâs name was Winston Churchill.

Sadly, we have no Winston Churchills evident among us this evening.
We have only Donald Rumsfelds, demonizing disagreement, the way Neville
Chamberlain demonized Winston Churchill.

History â and 163 million pounds of Luftwaffe bombs over England
â have taught us that all Mr. Chamberlain had was his certainty â
and his own confusion. A confusion that suggested that the office can
not only make the man, but that the office can also make the facts.

Thus, did Mr. Rumsfeld make an apt historical analogy.

Excepting the fact, that he has the battery plugged in backwards.

His government, absolute — and exclusive — in its knowledge, is not the modern version of the one which stood up to the Nazis.

It is the modern version of the government of Neville Chamberlain.

But back to todayâs Omniscient ones.

That, about which Mr. Rumsfeld is confused is simply this: This is a Democracy. Still. Sometimes just barely.

And, as such, all voices count — not just his.

Had he or his president perhaps proven any of their prior claims of
omniscience â about Osama Bin Ladenâs plans five years ago, about
Saddam Husseinâs weapons four years ago, about Hurricane Katrinaâs
impact one year ago â we all might be able to swallow hard, and
accept their âomniscienceâ as a bearable, even useful recipe, of
fact, plus ego.

But, to date, this government has proved little besides its own arrogance, and its own hubris.

Mr. Rumsfeld is also personally confused, morally or intellectually,
about his own standing in this matter. From Iraq to Katrina, to the
entire âFog of Fearâ which continues to envelop this nation, he,
Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and their cronies have â inadvertently or
intentionally â profited and benefited, both personally, and
politically.

And yet he can stand up, in public, and question the morality and
the intellect of those of us who dare ask just for the receipt for the
Emporerâs New Clothes?

In what country was Mr. Rumsfeld raised? As a child, of whose
heroism did he read? On what side of the battle for freedom did he
dream one day to fight? With what country has he confused the United
States of America?

The confusion we — as its citizensâ must now address, is stark and forbidding.

But variations of it have faced our forefathers, when men like Nixon
and McCarthy and Curtis LeMay have darkened our skies and obscured our
flag. Note — with hope in your heart â that those earlier Americans
always found their way to the light, and we can, too.

The confusion is about whether this Secretary of Defense, and this
administration, are in fact now accomplishing what they claim the
terrorists seek: The destruction of our freedoms, the very ones for
which the same veterans Mr. Rumsfeld addressed yesterday in Salt Lake
City, so valiantly fought.

And about Mr. Rumsfeldâs other main assertion, that this country faces a ânew type of fascism.â

As he was correct to remind us how a government that knew everything
could get everything wrong, so too was he right when he said that –
though probably not in the way he thought he meant it.

This country faces a new type of fascism – indeed.

Although I presumptuously use his sign-off each night, in feeble
tribute, I have utterly no claim to the words of the exemplary
journalist Edward R. Murrow.

But never in the trial of a thousand years of writing could I come
close to matching how he phrased a warning to an earlier generation of
us, at a time when other politicians thought they (and they alone) knew
everything, and branded those who disagreed: âconfusedâ or
âimmoral.â

Thus, forgive me, for reading Murrow, in full:

âWe must not confuse dissent with disloyalty,â he said, in
1954. âWe must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that
conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.

âWe will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be
driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history
and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful
men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to
defend causes that were for the moment unpopular.â

And so good night, and good luck.

Decided to install and run a movable type blog. Will post here ocassionally but most of my stuff is at http://rivendellweb.net

Baby Girl
Sugarland (Twice the Speed of Life)

They say in this town, stars stay up all night,
Well, I don’t know, can’t see ‘em for the glow of the neon lights.
An’ it’s a long way from here to the place where the home fires burn.
Well it’s two thousand miles and one left turn.

“Dear Mom and Dad,
“Please send money: I’m so broke that it ain’t funny.
“Well, I don’t need much; just enough to get me through.
“Please don’t worry ’cause I’m all right,
“I’m playin’ here at the bar tonight.
“Well, this time, I’m gonna make our dreams come true.
“Well, I love you more than anything in the world,
“Love,
“Your baby girl.”

Black jack, blue sky: big town full of little white lies.
Well, everybody’s your friend: you can never be sure.
They’ll promise fancy cars an’ diamond rings, an’ all sorts of shiny things,
But, girl, you’ll remember what your knees are for.

“Dear Mom and Dad,
“Please send money: I’m so broke that it ain’t funny.
“Well, I don’t need much; just enough to get me through.
“Please don’t worry ’cause I’m all right,
“See, I’m playin’ here at the bar tonight.
“Well, this time, I’m gonna make our dreams come true.
“Well, I love you more than anything in the world,
“Love,
“Your baby girl.”

I know that I’m on my way.
Well, I can tell every time I play.
An’ I know it’s worth all the dues I pay,
When I can write to you and say:

“Dear Mom and Dad,
“I’ll send money. I’m so rich that it ain’t funny.
“Well it oughtta be more than enough to get you through.
“Please don’t worry ’cause I’m all right,
“See, I’m stayin’ here at the Ritz tonight
“Whaddya know, we made our dreams come true.
“An’ there are fancy cars an’ diamond rings,
“But you know that they don’t mean a thing.
“Well, they all add up to nothin’ compared to you.
“Well, remember me in ribbons an’ curls.
“I still love you more than anything in the world:
“Love,
“Your baby girl.”

Ah yeah.

Your baby girl.
(“Dear Mom and Dad,
(“Please send money: I’m so broke that it ain’t funny.)
(“Don’t need much; just enough to get me through.)
Your baby girl.
(“Please don’t worry ’cause I’m all right,
(“Playin’ here at the bar tonight.)
(Ooh, ooh, ooh.)
Dreams come true.

Something more
Sugarland (Twice the speed of life)

Monday, hard to wake up
Fill my coffee cup, I’m out the door
Yeah, the freeway’s standing still today
It’s gonna make me late, and thats for sure
I’m running out of gas and out of time
Never gonna make it there by nine

Chorus:
There’s gotta be something more
Gotta be more than this
I need a little less hard time
I need a little more bliss
I’m gonna take my chances
Taking a chance I might
Find what I’m looking for
There’s gotta be something more

Five years and there’s no doubt
That I’m burnt out, I’ve had enough
So now boss man, here’s my two weeks
I’ll make it short and sweet, so listen up
I could work my life away, but why?
I got things to do before die

Repeat Chorus

Some believe in destiny, and some believe in fate
I believe that happiness is something we create
You best belive that I’m not gonna wait
‘Cause there’s gotta be something more

I get home 7:30 the house is dirt, but it can wait
Yeah, ’cause right now I need some downtime
To drink some red wine and celebrate
Armageddon could be knocking at my door
but I ain’t gonna answer thats for sure.
There’s gotta be something more!

I saw someting really amazing last night. It was CMT Crossroads and it featured Sugarland and… Bon Jovi?

The rules for being human

You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.

You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a fulltime informal school called life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.

There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error, experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately “works.”

A lesson is repeated until learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.

Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive there are lessons to be learned.

“There” is no better than “here.” When your “there” has become a “here” you will simply obtain another “there” that will again look better than “here.”

Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.

What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

Your answers lie inside you. The answer to life’s questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

This will often be forgotten, only to be remembered again.