Management Training

Today (and tomorrow) I have been (will be) participating in a management training course. No, not anger management. Project management. It's a career enhancement thing.

Anyway, this morning the instructor had us all take turns and introduce ourselves and describe any PM experience we may have. One of the other students, it turns out, works for a major tobacco company. At the break, I went over and introduced myself as her "fellow merchant of death," and we just chatted for a little while.

I asked her if, when people quit their jobs there, they ever find they can't quit, and they come back after a few months. Do they have to try to quit again and again and again? Because that would be awesome.

For the record, she didn't seem to think that was very funny, but who cares? I did!

Weird coincidence

Check this out. This is what I've got at home right now:




(Two of these discs I sent back this morning, but Netflix hasn't got them yet.) Notice anything funny? Yeah, they're all TV shows right now, at least until we finish The Office. But anything else?

They're all "Disc 3" of each show. What are the odds of that? We didn't plan it like this or anything, either, it just happened. Huh.

Many things

Many things have happened since last I wrote.

Some weeks ago, we went to Sam's Club, where, among other things, we had the goal of getting passport photos taken. Neither of us has an active passport, and we've had the passport applications on my desk here for a while, so we figured we should get that process started. Anyway, this meant we had to deal with the people at the Sam's Club photo center. A little word of caution: if you work at a Sam's Club photo center, and you're capable of such complicated tasks as, oh, opening a browser to this page and reading this, you're more intelligent than the employee we had to deal with that day.

Suffice it to say that we waited an hour to get photos that were blurry (mine) and scaled incorrectly (Wife's). When I pointed out that we simply did not have time to restart this process, as we had a cart full of rapidly defrosting food, our employee wrinkled her nose and said, "well, it is a one-hour photo lab." Of course, the photos were taken with a digital camera and printed from a computer, which does not take an hour, but it DOES take an hour when it takes you forty-five minutes to realize you forgot to put the proper photo paper into the machine.

So we just left, furious, and got home, where Wife called the Sam's manager and told her what an incompetent halfwit he had working for him. He apologized and offered to refund our money and retake the photos for free. Great.

We didn't get a chance to get back down there until last weekend. When we got in the door, we went to the customer service desk and explained the situation. The CS woman paged the manager, and we waited and waited and waited...so she paged him again. Again, we waited...until I finally just said, "why do you need him? Just refund our money, please." Which she did. So, okay, halfway to victory here. She took us over to the photo lab and explained that we were owed free photos. The photo lab employee said "okay, but we don't currently have a camera."

! I said "so how are you supposed to take passport photos?" Her answer, of course, was something like "Duhhhhhhh..." It was kind of hard to understand her with her finger up her nose to the knuckle. She suggested that she could scan in our old photos and blow them up. Okay, great, I said, but can you get rid of the blurriness on mine? Well, uh, no. So, once again, we left empty-handed and frustrated at ourselves for returning to that idiot hive.

So Sam's photo center is now 0 for 2. At least we got our money back. Costco, I'm begging you, please come out here. If you need a place to build your store, maybe we can blow up the Sam's Club and you can build there.

On another topic, last weekend I bought some new shoes and pants for work. I got some "clog-style" Oxford shoes that are awesome. There are no laces on them; rather, tension is applied to your foot through a pair of elastic straps that hold the tongue of the shoe onto your foot, and they are the MOST COMFORTABLE SHOES EVAR. Seriously, I've never had a pair of shoes that were so foot-friendly before, especially right out of the box. They weren't particularly cheap, but they were worth it.

So I got that going for me. Oh, I understand that the bookstore in the upscale shopping mall just a few minutes up the road from us is hosting a book signing by...a gangsta rapper named Master P today. Apparently he learned how to write, or at least to ghostwrite, and he has released a book. Which he'll be signing in person today...just a few minutes from the house. I can't imagine how many gangsta thug types will be swarming on this part of town this afternoon. Oh goody.

Man, I'm glad I bought that shotgun :)

Another Day at the Office

Most people get stuck going to work in the same cubicle day after day. Today was not that kind of day for me. Instead, I got to go down to Hunting Island. It is about a 3 hour drive one-way, but man is the view worth it. I had to do some work, and work in the hot humid sun, but then I got to eat my lunch on the beach. I took some pictures for you to envy...I mean enjoy.
On the other hand, don't be too jealous. I also had to go into the maritime forest to look for a marker and had my first introduction to a tick, or should I say a nest of them. Somehow I managed not to get one to bite me though, and for that I am very thankful. (Especially to DEET.)

The view

My feet in the Atlantic

Now I have been in both the Atlantic and the Pacific. (Ignore how white my legs are.)

For the birds

These were my adoring fans. I fed them my bread crusts. They were willing to get really close to me in order to get them as well.

Graduate School

I will warn you that the first half of this post is going to be filled with whining, but I promise it gets better.
School started August 23 and I was not ready to go back yet. Well I was ready in the sense of having all of my books, payed tuition, etc; I just wasn't mentally ready. Ready or not though, it started and I hit the ground running.
The first class was Dr Casey's course on the history of anthropology theory. Even before the course had started we were supposed to have read a 600 page book, which of course most of us had simply skimmed. Each week's assignment was a tremendous section of the book along with an accompanying book that better explained the first. We were also assigned 6-12 articles that we had to provide a 2-3 page annotated bibliography on each. Our main task for the semester including teaching the course for three days on a given subject which was to include a discussion session and a project of our creation for the class to accomplish. Another task was to research another subject given to us and explain how it fit into the greater sphere of anthropology theory. That was due the second week of class.
The second class was Dr Smith, who is British elitist and is known as the hardest professor in the department. The other graduate students have told me that if you get a B+ in his course, it is equivalent to an A++. That really made me intimidated of him, and then I saw his syllabus and almost passed out right there. I had ordered the books for the class a few weeks before, so I knew there was one every week, which I was worried about being able to keep up. (I am not a good skimmer. I like to read it through.) In addition to all these books, which are quite large in themselves, we have 6-12 journal articles to read. So all told in an average week there is about 600-800 pages of reading. We also had two essays due during the semester where we explain how the readings we have read fit into the larger historiography. In preparation of being professionals who have to present at conferences, we each were assigned a book where we have to write a professional book review and then present it to class without looking at it. (He later explained we could have a few note cards.)
The next day I went to Dr Brown's class, who is the department chair. His syllabus didn't look awful except for the first four weeks where we have to do a lot of reading and site visits. The rest of the semester appeared to be guest lectures, which I assumed meant just a response paper. I was right and I was wrong. In addition to a response paper, we also have to do what ever reading they assign (which we have been told will not be given to us more than 3 days ahead of the class), and we each are going to be assigned one of the guest speakers and we have to interview them and create a discussion session. Then he also announced that he was adding a project to be completed by the end of the semester. We have to read through 20 years of a single academic journal of our choosing and describe how it has changed.
My last class, which made four for the semester, was my American Architecture course with a former coworker Mr Sidebottom. This was the class I was most looking forward to, because it was actually directly related to the field I want to enter. The syllabus didn't frighten me since we had only a 100 pages to read in a week, two tests on architectural elements, and a historical research project on a style of our choosing.
By this point I had been in school for one week and I started to freak. For some reason I had gotten it into my head that I could handle not only more classes than is recommended, but also more work at my two jobs totaling 34 hours a week. (20 is the recommended with a 6 credit hour load. I had 12 at this point.) I was spending every moment studying, and I even had to leave work early to get everything done in the first week.
I evaluated the situation and decided that since the Anthropology course was the only one taught again while I am here, I would drop that course. I also decided that I should drop my second job, which was 14 hours a week. However, when I went to talk to my second job about quitting they instead wanted to compromise. They said to take the next two weeks off, get my head around my situation, and come back to talk. They are willing if needs be, to let me only work for 4 guaranteed hours a week plus any I can salvage here and there, with the understanding that next semester should be better and allow me to work more hours again.
That made me feel better, but I am still struggling with my reading but I am getting better at skimming. It really is a talent you either have naturally or don't. I apparently don't, but people are helping me learn a few tricks to help, and I am appreciative of that. It will also get better here in the next few weeks, I hope, when Dr Brown's class starts the guest lectures.
Although I don't like the late nights, the time away from Tim, driving home in the dark from class, and the insecurity that comes with a new challenge; I am loving graduate school. I feel honored to be able to attend and get to study in depth something in which I have a great interest. There is also a great sense of community among the faculty and students. If you have a problem understanding something, you can talk to anyone and they will help you. Your opinion isn't about being right or wrong, every point has a value as long as you can express it clearly.
I have already learned a lot and feel like I am going to grow professionally more than I ever would have imagined. It has also rekindled my drive to go above and beyond, which got lost in the summer heat I swear. I have set two goals for each year which involve presenting and attending professional conferences.
I didn't imagine that it would be so different from my undergraduate experience since I am attending not only the same school, but I am working with the same professors I have known my whole undergrad career. But it is different and it takes some getting used to. Especially being asked to call them by their first names, which one of my professors whom I have known for years now is adamant about.

I guess what I am trying to say is I am tired, but happy. If you don't hear from me, now you know why. I promise I am not ignoring anyone out of spite. Also, I can't wait for Christmas break!

Two Days In

School started on Thursday again for me. I had two classes that day and they are going to be my two hardest I believe. My Archeology Theory class is the history of the field and what social trends and changes in science caused things to evolve. There is a tremendous amount of reading required and we have to write 2-3 pages on each article we read. My History 702 class is on American history from 1789 to 1877 (Antebellum era), but is not a typical survey course where we go in depth about historical events and memorize times and names. Instead we will be focusing on labor, especially slavery and the economy, and discussing how the things we read fit into the historiography. This class also has a lot of reading but fewer papers.
Friday I had my History 720 course, which is a methods class where they teach us how to be historians and give us exposure to the various careers and interests. There is a bit of reading in the beginning and a few papers throughout, but for the most part it is a discussion course.
I still have yet to attend my American Architecture course, which will be on Wednesday. I am really looking forward to this course. There is going to be a bit of reading and memorizing styles, but this will be the most practical course for my degree.
All of my professors are extremely helpful, friendly, and informative. Only one of my professors is intimidating, and I think that stems not only from the fact that he is the only one I didn't have contact with in my undergrad degree, but also from the fact that he is known as a major player in the academic world for the history of slavery.
Right now I also have two jobs. I am working my assistantship at the State Parks doing historical research for new information kiosks at some of the parks. Later on I am also going to get to go on an archaeological dig (finally) and do some preservation work. I have also kept my internship doing GIS (mapmaking) at Richland County. This means I am working 34 hours and taking four grad courses. I am going to try this for at least a week to see if I can handle it. I am not so sure about it, but I won't know until I try. I can always leave my internship at GIS, and they have told me that they would be willing to take me back in the Spring if I was interested. So we will see how well I handle it, and if it fails I will at least be able to fix the problem and not hurt my grade because it will be early enough.

On another note... the lovely football players are already at it. USC is getting quite the reputation for having football players that are always in trouble. In the last two years they have had several arrests for fighting (at games and in public), vandalism (of their own office and vehicles), gun charges, drug charges, etc. Yesterday the quarterback and two others were suspended from the first game for not attending the summer courses they signed up for, which caused them to be put on academic probation. The new graduate students and I were talking about this today and I mentioned how it will be like this all year. Right after saying that I saw the news headlines and it turns out another player was arrested this morning for bringing a weapon on campus. It was unclear whether the firearm was unregistered or not, the press made it sound like it was.
Two days in and we already have four players suspended. I think that is a new record, but not one we should be proud of.

Fun day

Today we went to Charlotte to see the Body Worlds exhibit of artistically-preserved human bodies. We both found it fascinating, although one of our buddies had a severe case of the jibblies at first and we thought he was going to pass out. But he got through it and we had a good time.

Also, tonight we watched Hot Fuzz, which had better acting, writing, directing, and cinematography, a better story, and a much bigger budget than Shaun of the Dead, but wasn't as funny. Still a good watch.

The death of evolution

I recently read Fahrenheit 451, the classic novel of a dystopian future America. Most people think the book is about widespread censorship by a tyrannical government, but that's not exactly true. In the book, the American people have, on their own, rejected books and all other intellectual pursuits. This is encouraged by the government once it becomes obvious that they can use it to repress and control people, but the root cause is the public's growing obsession with television.

Bradbury's point, in more detail here, is that the real culprit, the real devastator of American society is television. Given that this book was written over 50 years ago, I would imagine that a modern take on the story would point the finger at other forms of media, in addition to television, but for now suffice it to say that the story is about the damaging effects of television addiction.

If you've not read it recently, Bradbury describes how the government uses this massive censorship to, among other things, keep the population under control and mentally dormant. Specifically, we are told by Fire Captain Beatty, that the most popular shows on television engage the audience by requiring so little brainpower to comprehend that even the tiniest amount of consciousness spent watching them can allow the audience to feel intelligent and accomplished.

For example, Beatty describes one of the most popular television shows as being a game show in which people are asked if they know the lyrics to various popular songs. Of course, most people do, so they are allowed to feel as though they have accomplished something worthwhile, even though song lyrics surely number among the least valuable things a person can commit to memory. In that way, television strokes the ego and flatters the viewer for what amounts to essentially nothing.

Guess what new game show I just heard about? From Wiki:

Combining karaoke singing with a spelling bee-style competition, this show will have contestants trying to remember the lyrics to popular songs. In each episode, six lucky contestants will be selected from the audience to play a series of games that test their knowledge of song lyrics.

This isn't just similar to Bradbury's dire warning. It's not merely close. It's exactly the same. And if that's not bad enough, a rival network has already ripped it off with another show that appears to be identical.

Also, I have been made aware of the existence of a nationally-televised Bingo game show.

I think that part of the reason that Bradbury's work has been misinterpreted is due to the idea that it's much easier to believe in a malevolent government body deciding what's best for us all. Perhaps it seems implausible that Americans would jointly decide that they don't need books when they have Tivos and network television and other shiny things and diversions. In a nation where this soul-murdering garbage is among the highest-rated of these diversions, a nation where the endless fact-free news cycle is so busy covering the DUI arrests of various worthless dregs of society, I don't have a hard time believing in Bradbury's vision of the future.

Pathetic.

Serious Post-Potter Depression

I finished HP7 today after staying up late both Friday and Saturday nights. It was amazing. I laughed. I cried. Now all I want is more. I read everything I could on Wikipedia and I watched several of the interviews JK gave after it was all done, and I still want more. I want to know what happens right after the final chapter until the epilogue. I want to know more about the battle. I just want more.
It seems odd to think that it is done and that I can never read a Harry Potter book for the first time again. I felt the same way with Lord of the Rings, but I must admit I got more involved in these books and the personal side of each character. Especially when it came to my favorite characters, Fred and George. My favorite scene about them is during end of the 5th book. (I am sure if you have read them you know what I am talking about.)
So now I have to go back to the Muggle world and go to work tomorrow. I really wish I could stay absorbed in the books instead.

New Record

Today we hit a new heat record at 105. With the heat index from the humidity, that comes to 112 degrees! At least the air was blowing today. It has been pretty hazy and stagnant for the last few days.

HOT

Today it was 101 degrees with a heat index of 105. (That is how hot they say it feels with the humidity added.) We have a whole week of this according to the weather man. As miserable as it is normally, I can usually avoid being outside for the most part but today we had to do a site visit for an hour at a historic home and we had to dress professionally. I am also supposed to go out on Thursday searching for missing cemeteries with GIS. I think I am going to beg to have that one rescheduled after the headache I came home with today from being out in the heat.
Now I understand why Amy comes home from Dubai during the summer.

How do you reason with someone like this

One of my friends mentioned online that her son has chicken pox. I thought that was odd given that they immunize for that, so I asked her if she didn't. She informed me, and the rest of our friends via the internet, that she had not immunized her son and the reason why. She "researched" about it and found that immunizations create autism and ADHD according to this group called Generation Rescue. And on a minor note, her family has reactions to Pertussis, which I can understand being that I also have a reaction to that particular immunization. My understanding is that she hasn't immunized for any of the major ones, because she stated that when he is two she will immunize him for the big ones like Polio.
I tried to keep an open mind and read the article she sent me to read. Their research consisted of a telephone survey of nine counties in Oregon in which they asked parents if they had immunized their children and if their kids had been diagnosed with ADHD or Autism. Their findings were that boys were 1.5 times more likely to have autism and ADHD if they were immunized and it got worse the older they got. I found several flaws with this, but the two biggest were that there is no official test for either of these "diseases" and the fact that correlation is not causation.
I also went to the website for this group who wrote the article and their entire purpose is to "educate" parents about the dangers of immunizations and other instances of toxic materials such as mercury. Sounds completely non-biased to me.
It strikes me though that most of the immunizations we receive have been around for a pretty decent amount of time and you would think that something so dangerous would have been discovered by the larger medical community by now. I would also think there are far more dangerous things to worry about with a child than the small, if any, chance he gets some disorder from an immunization.

I am going to catch that bad car fairy and give him a Rita Skeeter in a jar moment

Today has not been a stellar day, especially for cars that have been parked in our garage. First, T's car started having ABS problems last week and we were going to take it to the dealer tomorrow morning. In the meantime I dropped him off to work so we could use it the least possible since it still works, but with car problems you always want to be careful.
On my way to work there was a huge car accident and it took me 1 hour and 10 minutes to go to work. Normally it takes 20-30 minutes, which isn't great but what are you going to do. I should have been early to work though since I took T in.
After work I picked him up and we stopped for gas for my car. My car was very thirsty and I was commenting on that as I was trying to turn the key. But nothing happened. No clicking. No grinding. Nothing. Not even any lights on the dash. Strange. I was just using the car. I had noticed on the way to get T that the transmission seemed like it was hiccuping a little, but I didn't think much of it because it was only up hills. We tried to move the car out of the gas stall because many other people needed to use the pump, but my car wouldn't let me put it in neutral. We looked all over the manual and couldn't find anything that told us what to do. Then we checked the fuses and they were all fine. So I gave up and called a tow truck because I have free road side assistance. We sat in the car with the windows down in the hot and humid weather watching all the people stare at us until the tow truck came an hour later. He got it on the truck with no problem but he did have to give us a jump so that we could roll the power windows back up. It turns out that in order to shift my car into neutral you have to pull the cover off of a small hole and turn your key inside. I will say again that there was nothing in the manual about this.
After the tow truck took us to the dealer we had a friend drive us home. Hopefully my car will be pretty easy to fix, but luckily it is still under warranty. We think it is the alternator. It is a little early for it to fail but who knows what kind of pressure it has been under with the three years of heavy air conditioning usage. When all is said and done with my car, we can take the other car to the other dealer across town and get that one fixed.
And since things come in threes, the fairy also burned out the light bulb to the garage door opener so we can't see in there now when you pull in at night. I am going to catch that fairy and teach him to mess with me and my car.

I want one!

Yes, that is a 105 ft high rubber duckie. And it got loose. I want it.

Very inventive

I just saw this article about a contest they hold every year for the best duct tape prom couple outfits. They are amazing. I used to make bags and wallets in high school when I got bored. They put me to shame. Plus, if you win, you get a $9000 college scholarship! Here I am busting my butt getting good grades for a few a couple of hundreds. I should have done this instead.

Being a Preservationist is Cool

I started the last of my new jobs last week and I love it. I don't get to do any of the actual preservation, but I do get to hear about stuff that is going on. On my first day I also got the grand tour, which included the vaults. In these vaults are state documents like the original charter for the state of South Carolina from the Lords Proprietors, the original copy sent to the state of the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. They are in pretty sad shape since people don't always realize the importance of documents until much later. One even had a coffee mug type stain on it.
On another note, I finally put in my notice at my weekend job. My last day isn't till the 21st of this month, but at least there is an end. I was afraid to quit because they need the summer help and it is a valuable connection for me to have career wise. But I was dreading getting up on the weekends after working a full week and all I was doing is giving tours. I didn't have anything to do with actual interpretation or preservation. But I left in a professional way and so the bridge is still there if I need it in the future. Now I just have to actually plan something fun to do with my last three weekends before school starts.

Pizza

We went to the Mellow Mushroom last night for dinner. It was yummy. While we were there, two huge groups of Jehovah's Witnesses came in--one with 16 people, another with 13. Apparently there is some sort of crazy Jay-Dub convention in town or something. Ugh. Anyway, we knew they were Jay-Dubs because they had little name tags.

Anyway, when the first group came in, the hostess seemed a little concerned that they would be unable to fit them all (if you've been there, you know it's not a real big restaurant), but she dutifully went back to check and see if they could be accommodated. While they were waiting for her to return, the second group came in and I whispered something to the wife along the lines of "they can only serve 144,000 people here, so they might not be able to fit everybody."

I do, indeed, kill me. We got seated, and we went out for ice cream afterwards. Mmmm...with enough leftovers for dinner tonight, too.