elrond259's Thought Pockets

Unemployed but still hopeful

Currently Reading Spook Country By William Gibson see related

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

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

Currently Listening Burn By Jo Dee Messina These are the days see related

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.