A note from Mom...

Good morning everyone...

I got a message from my mom about a conversation we had this past weekend, I thought I'd share it with you all.

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hi michael,
i've been thinking about something that you said when you were visiting yesterday,,,it was something like "life hasn't turned out the way you expected",,,and i hope you don't get depressed by that,,,i will go back to my own experience of having cancer which was without a doubt the low point of my life,,,and yet,,,and yet,,,exactly one year later max was born,,,i believe that when things are bad you have to realize that something beautiful may be waiting for you just around the corner,,,,i know from life this is true,,,,
so keep your spirits up and know that there are lots of people who love you and are all keeping good thoughts for you,,,,and you don't know what's around the corner,,,,;-)

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Just a little life lesson from mom. :)

Crimson in NYC

Hello all! I haven't written in awhile, so let me start back up with what I last wrote about, the King Crimson show in NYC from back on August 14th.

The show started at about 8:30pm, and I had a front row ticket, to the right side, right in front of Tony Levin, the band's bass/stick player. It was a great show, very intense, a lot of heavy music, lots of instrumental bits. I enjoyed it immensely!

I could see everyone on stage very well, although Adrian Belew, the guitarist/singer, would periodically block Pat Mastelotto, one of the drummers.

The setlist was (to the best of my memory, so the order may be screwy):

Drum duet

The ConstruKction of Light

Neurotica

Red

Dinosaur

Talking Drum

Larks Tongues II

Walking On Air

Three of a Perfect Pair

Level Five

B'Boom

Frame By Frame

Indiscipline

First Encore:

2nd Drum Duet

Elephant Talk

2nd Encore:

Vrooom/Coda

Thela Hun Gingeet

I may be missing a song or two in there, I'll have to check around on the web to be sure... The show was a great time, being front row I was able to really pay attention to the music, and get into it in a very fun way. I tend to "conduct" the music when I listen to this stuff, making some sort of odd hand movements along with the material. I don't quite know why, but it helps me really get into it when I'm at a concert.

Here's a photo from Tony Levin, where you can spot Zorky...

King Crimson!

Tomorrow, I'm heading into NYC after work, to go see the band King Crimson at the Nokia Theatre in Times Square. I'm looking forward to the show, I *believe* my ticket will be front row. If so, it'll be my second front row King Crimson experience.

My first front row experience with the Crimson King was in Boston in 2001. John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin fame was opening for KC, although it was almost more of a co-headlining show, as JPJ played almost as long as KC did.

Crimson is a very *intense* band, and this lineup consists of Robert Fripp on guitar, Adrian Belew on guitar and vocals, Tony Levin on bass, and Gavin Harrison and Pat Mastelotto on drums.

I'll be sure to post a review of my thoughts on the show over the weekend. The band is actually playing 4 nights in NYC, but this is my only show.... Unless I become inspired to try to go to Friday's show too!

This Saturday, in non-KC related news, we start our Resident Assistant training for this year. The schedule has come together nicely, and I expect that we'll have a good week training, as we get ready for the arrival of students on campus on August 25th and 26th.

More later...

Boston!

Sorry for the long time between posts, but I've been busy, and I'll try to write more as we move through the rest of this year.

This past weekend, I went to Boston to hang out with my friend Brian, so here's some photos of the weekend...

Here's Brian in his office, a few minutes after I arrived on Friday. From here, we went out and saw 'The Dark Knight,' which was excellent. Good storyline, and I would have never known it was Heath Ledger playing the Joker if it wasn't plastered all over the place...

Looking up Tremont Street in Boston, towards one of the old churches. One of my friends got married in that churck back in 2003 or so, it's a nice place. And, it was a beautiful day up there in Boston. Great driving up from New Jersey, and no real traffic problems, which was good.

That evening, Brian and I headed into Harvard Square, for a late dinner, and for this photo, which has a drug induced hippy feel to it... Do not take the brown acid!

The place is 400 years old, but yet they still build...

Back at Brian's. I scoff at the camera...

The next day, on Saturday, we headed back to Harvard Square. Across from Brian's, this cat was chilling out on the sidewalk. Pretty kitty!

Brian, his sister In, and I went to the Border Cafe, one of my favourite restaurants on the planet. And perhaps others too... I took this photo outside. I would have taken one inside, but the manager actually stopped me. I asked why, and he said that all the art and other things on the walls are custom made, and he's seen The Border's stuff show up in other restaurants. I thought it was a little extreme, not taking the photo, but hey, its his business, so I oblidged...

And what's a visit to Harvard Square without some street performers? Here's a guy with a nice little one man band setup going on... He had a shaker strapped to his foot, for a bit of percussion going on... No photo though, I didn't want to hang out taking photos of feet for that long...

On Saturday night, Brian and I just hung out at his place. I thought about going out, or contacting some other friends, but I was just too tired, and actually fell asleep for a bit... We are too exciting!

I was thinking of sticking around later on Sunday, to go to the beach with Brian for a bit, as he had some friends who were going to play beach volleyball, but I wanted to get back to NJ at a reasonable time. I'll hit Boston again sometime in the Fall, I'm sure...

NP: Pink Floyd - Astronomy Domine (30 March 1994)

Blood donation!

Today at the college, the Community Service office sponsored one of their blood drives. As I was feeling good and ready for it, I signed up to donate!

Walking over to the room where the drive was being held, it was a beautiful day, so the bridge needed to be photographed....

Once we got all our paperwork in order, I had to wait until there was a free couch. Melody, one of my co-workers, was one step ahead of me. :)

Self portrait of the administrator as a blood donor....

By this time, I was stuck with the needle, and draining had commenced! Feeling good!

And afterwards, you got to have your OJ! Don't want to pass out!

And, finally, the aftermath. That's iodine on my arm, not anything else! They did use a lot of iodine compared to other times I've given blood, but it doesn't hurt or anything, so it's all good...

So, if you can, GIVE BLOOD!

NP: King Crimson - The Sailor's Tale (1971 04 13)

Saturday review

Today was a little different than most Saturdays, as I went to a memorial service down in Spring Lake, NJ, for a memorial service for one of my grandmother's cousins who passed away earlier this week. I'm not usually a person who is thrilled about the content of memorial services, as it seems to be people saying general platitudes about a person. However, the minister at this service actually appeared to know my grandmother's cousin, so I think the service was actually better than some others I have been to.

After that, I went to my mom's place in Asbury, to see her for a bit. She had a lamp that she had ordered, which had an issue with the wiring, there was too much wire, and nowhere for the wire to go. It couldn't be pulled through a different area of the lamp, or pushed into a segment of the lamp that could store it.

So, it looks like the lamp actually has a real issue...

Here's a photo of my mom out on her back porch.

We tried to entice Daisy, my mom's cat, out for me to pet, but Daisy is really only used to my mom... Here's a video of Daisy the fraidy cat...

But, she does make friends with my mom, as we can see here...

And finally, here's a photo of the ocean, from my mom's rooftop deck. It was a bit hazy, but still, I love the ocean, and could look at it all day...

NP: Talking Heads - Take Me to the River

Father's Day

Here's a photo of my Dad and I, from this evening. He and my stepmother are traveling for a bit, so we did a Father's Day dinner tonight. A good time was had by all!

In other news, today was the last Friday that I'm working until mid-August, as the college goes to a four day work-week during most of the summer. Needless to say, this is a happy day. I was *really* hoping that today could be the first Friday off, but really, I guess I can't be that greedy... :)

On Saturday, I'm heading to a memorial service for one of my grandmother's cousins. She was a nice lady, and she helped me out with my genealogy research. So, I'll actually be heading there with my Uncle Gary, and probably stopping by my Mom's place afterwards.

NP: Battlestar Galactica

The Genesis Meetup - UK Style

On Saturday, 24 May, during our trip to England, Maria and I had planned a UK fan meetup for interested Genesis fans... Maria did the lion's share of the advance planning, I planned some trivia questions and other stuff for the evening's festivities.

The meetup was set to begin around 8pm, so Maria asked that we get to the pub, called The Albion on Hammersmith Road, at around 7:30pm to set up, and make sure that everything was ready for the fans who had RSVP'ed to the event. I headed out to the pub, and found Maria there, with a British fan, Matt, who I had met in NYC back in September before the Genesis MSG show.

We chatted for a bit, and then headed upstairs in the pub to our private room (ooh la la!) to get things set up. Maria and I got some decorations, mainly a big banner, set up, and we worked with the owner of the pub to get the DVD screen ready, for the showing of the Genesis Fan Club DVD.

At about 8pm, we're ready, Charlotte is there with her video camera, I'm there with, well, me, and Maria's got all the logistical "stuff" worked out with the pub owner.

Here are some scenes from the gathering...

Mike interviews Martin/Bender for some video clips on the website... Who's the most lifelike one here?

John/GreekHogweed wins the signed t-shirt from the band, as he came from the farthest distance (Greece)! John was a great guy to meet, very friendly and open, a fun person.

I'm holding court about something here, wish I remember what it was, as I'm enthralling the crowd! Probably something about Genesis...

The Trivia Contest.... Me choosing a *really* hard question for the group... Do you know when Anthony Phillips' last gig was with Genesis? Anyone?

The ladies of Genesis.... Eliuk, AfterglowCB, Maria, Caro345, and Caro's friend... Or was she Afterglow's friend? Ack, my memory!

Me interviewing Mark (Asher) for the website... Mark was the first interview, I believe. The interviews will be edited and up on the site sometime soon. Can't wait to see them myself...

Bender serving us some food... Looking for tips, I bet!

The Genesis Members Only DVD. It does exist! Really!

I'm obviously casting a spell... I didn't know that this was the Harry Potter fan group meeting too!

Myself, Eli, and Caro, I believe right before I did their interview, or maybe after... I have a future in newscasting... Or in Genesis fan interviews.

Doing the Invisible Touch hop.... Yes, we're dopey, but it's my kind of dopey.

This was a great trip, and I got to meet a lot of fantastic people. It was everything I could have wanted in the event! People left happy, and a lot of new bonds were created. What more can you ask for?

More to come....

Writing again!

For about the 4th or 5th time this year, I am going to try to re-dedicate myself to writing this blog. I've been inspired by some comments recently, about people enjoying reading this, so here I am...

It's been about two weeks since returning to the US from England, and I've been digesting the experience, as it was a lot to take in. Fortunately, we got to see parts of London, like London Tower, the Eye, Parliment, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, all the biggies...

Here are some photos...

The view outside our hotel room in Kensington... Someone's back garden, I suppose...


I believe this is near Wellington Arch, and that could very well be Wellington on the statue behind me... This was taken on Wednesday, our first day in London-town...

I told you, all the classics.... Big Ben.

Tower Bridge. It's almost like a hat.

Tower Bridge from a distance, with HMS Belfast, and some sort of cruise ship tied up in the Thames together.

A good shot of Tower Bridge from the Tower of London itself. Sue took all of these photos, I should let you know, as I forgot my camera on the trip! Not a smart move on my part, but fortunately, Sue and others were able to document the time there very well.

The Tower of London, from our bus tour. The first buildings in the Tower started in, I believe, 1067. So, it's almost a full thousand years old the oldest buildings in the center. The White Tower...

This photo is looking towards the Thames from the side of the Tower. It was before we went in for our tour...

Our tour guide... A member of the British military, and a guy with a good sense of humor, which is important in a tour guide, I believe... I wish I remembered his name, and I wish I knew we were supposed to tip him at the end! Live and Learn.

Inside the Tower, with some ruins in the foreground...

Westminster Abbey, it was actually closed to tours by the time we got there, which is one of my few disappointments from the trip, as I really wanted to see inside, Poet's Corner, and just breathe in the history...

Another Abbey shot, for goot measure. A beautiful place....

Tomorrow, I'll post about the Genesis meetup, and show you all some photos from that fun event. All of these photos were taken on Wednesday or Friday of our trip...

NP: Genesis - Dodo (29 Nov 1981)

My Day with Genesis

For those of you who don't know, I work as a "consultant" for the band Genesis, basically as the "webmaster" for their website. My official title, for what it's worth, is "Genesis-Web Content Editor," but webmaster seems to cover the real work of it.

Genesis are releasing a DVD of their tour from last year, called "When in Rome 2007." Because there's a lot of publicity surrounding this release, Maria, who works for the company that runs the Genesis website, thought it would be great if we could head to London, to help cover the DVD release for the website. As you can imagine, she got no argument from me about this.

So, we made travel arrangements to head over to London, Maria a day earlier than I, to cover the DVD premiere, and my plan was to arrive on Wednesday, 21 May with Sue, as she was able to get off of work to have a little mini-vacation with me.

The really exciting part of this for me, as a Genesis fan, is that we had proposed to their management that we would do a tour of "The Farm," Genesis's studio, and actually do an online chat with Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks, 2/3rds of the core of Genesis since 1978. And, to our great pleasure, they actually agreed to this! So, I was going to get to go out to The Farm, where Genesis recorded such albums as Abacab, Genesis, Invisible Touch, and We Can't Dance, and hang out, tour the facilities, and meet Mike and Tony! Great stuff!

I'll do a blog later on about the rest of the trip, but this is all about the visit to The Farm. It was a great day, no two ways about it. I'll start at the beginning, and go from there. If you're not interested in hearing me blab about this, then this is *not* the blog for you.

I met up with Maria and Charlotte (the videographer) at about 11:45am at Waterloo Station in London on Thursday, 22 May. We were meeting to take the train out to the Farm, and do the various and sundry activities for today. I had my laptop with me (and some items to be signed!), Maria and Charlotte had the camera, laptops, and from Maria, snacks for the ride!

Our train leaves at 12:15, and we are at Witley by about 1:10. A very nice train ride through the English countryside. As it was my first trip EVER to the UK, it was great to see a bit of land outside of London. We were picked up at the train station, after a very brief wait by Dale Newman, who has been working with the band (starting out as MR's tech during the US Lamb tour) since 1975.

Dale's a *really* friendly, genuinely nice guy (as everyone I met out at The Farm was), originally from Indiana, but has been living in the UK for years now. We talked a bit of baseball, US politics, and of course, the band and music in general. We arrived at the Farm after maybe a 10 minute drive (my timing may be a bit wonky, as I wasn't really paying attention too much to time). There, we met Geoff Callingham, another long time Genesis "guy," and a truly great person to meet.

After chatting for a bit, making introductions and talking some tech set up for the day, Dale gives us the tour of the facilities (before the videotaped tour with Nick Davis). We see the main control room, the recording room, the stone room (for Phil's drums), and the back "old" control room, where Dale does some recording of his own material. Later on, I went back with Dale and he played me one of his newer songs, which I enjoyed, there was some nice sounding keys in the chorus of the song that I particularly liked.

After leaving the old control room, Dale took us to the equipment shed, where he told a great story about a Stonehenge mockup and it's role at the end of the first Mike & the Mechanics tour (think "Stonehenge" from Spinal Tap, and you'll get the jist of the story). There were a lot of flight cases around, along with some old keyboards, some familiar stools, and lots of guitar strings and other tech equipment. Great stuff... There was also a field right by the equipment shed, filled with sheep/lamb. When sheep bleat, it almost sounds "fake," as they sound too much like someone imitating a sheep... Kind of funny, to my mind...

Once back in, Dale made up some of his world famous sausages, which were quite good! Charlotte went out to grab some exterior shots of the studio, and Maria and I continued to get some tech stuff done. At this poing, I logged onto the Genesis site, and posted a thread in the Forum, and in response to a comment in that thread about soundboard tapes from early Genesis tours, Geoff suggested taking a photo of the tapes/hard drive boxes in the other room.

While we got some things done, Nick Davis showed up, probably before 2:30pm? We all talked for a bit after introductions, and we planned out how to do this video tour. Nick went outside to start it with Charlotte, and then, once inside, I got picked up on the tour to help out by asking some basic questions about the studio as we went along. I felt a little stilted, as when filming, you really do feel the camera eye on you, and there is a responsibility to be "interesting!" I think it turned out well though. Having done the tour with Dale previously helped out, as I knew some things to ask about, and while I'm not a professional musician, I'm familiar enough with how studios work that I could ask some decent questions.

After the tour, I checked in with Maria to see about the chat situation. We were concenred about some issues with the room, but there were tech folks at Ultrastar HQ who were working on workarounds, and we (meaning the tech folks!) got the issues resolved.

Because Charlotte had worked with Tony Banks' daughter either during or after college (I wasn't sure of the exact timeline), Emily stopped by, and we all had a brief chat. While waiting for the main event with Mike and Tony (they were expected around 5:45pm or so), Maria and I showed Nick and Geoff the Members DVD in the TV in the control room. Nick in particular really enjoyed it, and was gracious enough to say so in the Members Forum on the website.

This was one of those moments, watching the DVD on a monitor at The Farm, with Nick Davis sitting right next to me, bopping his head to Turn It On Again, and Home by the Sea, where I let myself think, "I'm at the FARM! This is NUTS!"

After some tea from Geoff, and working out the last of the tech/chat issues, Mike and Tony arrive, in separate cars, but within about a minute or two of each other. I believe Mike came in first, then Tony. We had some brief intros, again, and began the set up in earnest... I *believe* I posted in the chat room that "Mike and Tony are here," but some things are a bit of a blur...

We actually changed some of the set up on the fly. Our initial plan was to have Mike and Tony in the same room. I would be transcribing for Tony, and Maria for Mike. That way, we could pull a question, and if it was for both of them, Tony could answer, then Mike, or vice versa. Also, we thought we could get some good banter between them for the camera, and the chat. However, when we sat down, Mike was concerned that he and Tony would be talking over each other, or at the same time, so that it would be hard to concentrate on the actual questions.

So, Maria quickly set up in the other room with Mike (at the couches in the control room) whereas I stayed with Tony in the main "lounge" of the Farm. I chatted with Tony a bit, explaining how the "backend" of this chat would work, so that he would know what was going on. Nick was at another computer in the same room, doing some pre-chat, chat... Tony seemed interested and engaged in the chat process, and asked if he'd need to read himself. I said that I'd read the questions to him, but if he wanted to read himself, he could also. He got his reading glasses, so he could see the screen (on my laptop) a bit better. I did also ask Tony if there was anything that he *didn't* really want to talk about, and I believe his response was, "You can ask anything, don't worry about it." He also said that he knew that he could talk a lot, but would try to keep it shorter than usual...

I also have to share that I did bring some CD sleeves to get signed, and just by chance, they were sitting by the side of my laptop, with "A Curious Feeling" on the top. He pointed it out, and said something along the lines of "A man with taste," when I said it was mine... That was a fun little moment.

Since Maria was in the other room, I wasn't sure if we had an "intro" or not to the chat, so I decided to just jump into it. The good thing with Mike being in the other room with Maria, was that we were able to get a lot more questions asked, as we were really almost doing two chats at once. The negative to that was that we lost the interaction of Mike and Tony, and we couldn't film the *whole* chat, as Charlotte was going between the two rooms with the camera. I think Tony and I got filmed a bit more, as our room had better lighting.

I think I did a good job getting the spirit of Tony's answers. It was really impossible to get all of his words into every answer with my transcribing, but we joked about that too. Nick however thought that I really did a decent job, as he was sitting in the same room, and could hear Tony's answers, and read my transcription.

I have to be honest, I have *no clue* what Mike was saying to Maria, as I really couldn't take the time to read his responses as they came up in chat. Since being there, I've had time to read over the transcript, and it was great to see that Mike appeared to have a good time with the chat on his end also.

It *felt* like we did the chat for about an hour, although you can correct me if I have the specific time off. From reading some other comments, I can see that I/we may have pulled some questions from the same users. I can say at least on my part, I was trying to pull questions, and honestly, I barely paid attention to who posted the question. It's a little stressful, as you can imagine... But Tony was *really* easy to talk to.

I think Tony enjoyed doing the chat, and at the end, before he left, I mentioned that if he wanted to do anything else for the site, we'd be happy to facilitate it. "I know, I know" was his response, in a friendly way, like he knows he would like to do more, but just hasn't gotten around to it... I think that's hopeful for the future, for more chats, etc. I did manage to get Mike and Tony to sign some items, and the banter between the two of them at that point was really fun, just two old friends hanging out...

So, then they departed for whatever was next for them, probably relaxing... I took a deep breath, and just let it soak in, what had just happened.

We did some final filming for the tour, and wrapped up... Maria, Charlotte and I got on the 8:20pm train out of Whitley, back to Waterloo!

This is perhaps a very "dry" retelling of the events from last week, but I wanted to give a sense of how this type of event actually works. I had a blast, and it was pretty surreal. I have to say, Tony and Mike are friendly, and I was happy to work closely with Tony on the chat. It's *really* great that we were able to share some good news about the board tapes, and also about the *possibility* of the ACF reissue. Tony was a "good interview," and I enjoyed it immensely...

I also think that getting face time with Nick, Dale, and Geoff will help with getting some more content on the site. Obviously, Nick has his own area of the Forum, but I talked with Geoff and Dale about some other ideas for long time Genesis employee participation.

Emotionally, it was FANTASTIC! I realize I am INCREDIBLY lucky to have had this opportunity, and I really do feel like I was representing "fans" in my trip there. Sure, I was the guy in the chair, but really, part of my job is to put a "human" face to the fans, the website, and our fun group in general who live here on the site. So, that was part of the great fun of our London trip. More to come about the rest of the trip later on...

Ah, the weekend...

I've been resting a lot this weekend, and updating my Shelfari page. You can see my new widget above my links, to the right of this post. This will show what I'm reading now, and if you hit the Shelfari link in the list of links, it'll show my entire bookshelf.

I have updated all the books I own into the Shelfari site, and now will be keeping it up to date from here on out. If you want to see what I'm reading, be sure to check it out. Reading is fundamental, as they say...

I may have some interesting travel news to share later this week, I'll keep you posted on what is going on.

Anyone out there watch Battlestar Galactica this past Friday? I thought it was a good start to the season, although I never quite know why some characters in fiction, when they come back from being "dead," never quite understand the perspective of the others who are meeting them, that it might actually make sense for others not to trust them right off the bat. Of course, if that were to happen, the story wouldn't advance, or it would be a very different kind of story.

I'll be interested to see how this "Final Five Cylons" plot line continues to develop. I still think there's some tie into the "Earth" plot, like these Five Cylons aren't actually Cylons. However, the "programming" of Anders may belie that idea. We shall see...

I promise to write more regularly now. Lets see if I can keep the promise...

Python!

I just, in the past few minutes, finished reading Michael Palin's newest book, Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years. While reading diary entries can be a bit dry, Palin writes with a clarity and a brevity that always tells a coherent story, while also being entertaining in the whole.

From reading about Palin and Python activities during the 70's, I've really been sucked back into a Python mode. I just threw on some of the DVDs of the TV show, and watched the new Life of Brian DVD last weekend. Not that I'm alone in this, but every time I watch Python, I realize how much they've influenced my own sense of humor. I'm not one of those people who goes around quoting every Python skit out there (I have *not* memorized the Parrot Sketch or the Cheese Shop bit), but I do find some turns of phrase from the show appearing in my everyday speech. It's more about embedding the ethos into my life, versus just quoting lines.

Reading the diaries, it's a firm reminder how anti-establishment Monty Python were as a group. Being in my line of work, where I am responsible for enforcing policy, it can be a bit of a stretch to incorporate my world view into my work. It's not impossible, but it involves a bit more thought. I think what stifles me is when I work with people who can't see outside of a strict view of what they think our work is about, in helping to develop college students. Sometimes, I think my field goes for some easy answers, instead of wrestling with the complex ideas that confront us in our daily work. The contradiction here is that we're supposed to be dealing with complex issues, helping our students continue to grow into good people...

So, with all that being said, I've been looking to digest more and more Python... I'll probably watch more of the TV show, perhaps revisit "The Meaning of Life," and continue to fight the power!

The NASPA Conference

I was in Boston from March 7th to the 12th for the NASPA conference, one of the two major gatherings of student affairs professionals per year. I got into the city on Friday the 7th, and after settling into the hotel room (the lovely Midtown Hotel, right across from the Christian Science Center), I walked over to the Hynes Convention Center to get checked in, and see who was around that I knew.

I ran into Tricia, who I had worked with at Dartmouth, and who was now going through job interviewing herself, and talked to my old boss Jeff, also from Dartmouth. A nice visit with people I'd revisit throughout the trip.

That evening, I met up with my friend Sharon, who is a friend from way back at Boston College. We first met the summer of 1991, when we were both working for Housing during the summer. Actually, I was working making beds, and Sharon was working as an Orientation Advisor. We would work together, when the OA's would help us out, making beds for conferences.

So, anyway, we lost contact with each other after college (probably due to messages left not getting delivered), but recently, we've been back in touch through the wonders of the internet. Since I was coming into Boston, we made plans to meet up and get together for dinner.

We went to an Ethiopian restaurant, which was a lot of fun for me, as I had never been to one before. The food was quite good, and Sharon and I talked pretty much non-stop, just catching up, talking about our lives, etc. It's funny, because it wasn't like we were best friends back in college, but we always got along very well, and it was quite easy to just fall back into that mode in conversation.

And yes, I continue to be analytical about everything!

On Saturday, within the conference, we attended the JASPA conference, which was a day long conference for student affairs professionals from Jesuit colleges. David, my director, and Jess, our Assistant Coordinator of Operations, had flown up with me, but were only there for the JASPA section of NASPA.

JASPA, as a conference, was a mixed bag. Half of it was great (the morning sessions), and the afternoon sessions were not terribly thrilling. The banquet in the evening, back on the campus of Boston College, was fun for the time I was there. Taking the charter bus out there, I really had some strong feelings of connection to Boston, the campus, and that time of my life in general. Boston was a time in my life when I *really* enjoyed almost everything that was going on in my life. Sure, there were ups and downs, as usual, but it was a very happy time in my life.

Going back to campus, I was able to just sit back and relax, and let those feelings of being back "home" wash over me. Boston, besides the NJ shore area, is the one other place I consider to be "home." It was great to not have to concentrate on driving myself, thinking of other things, I was able to just *be*, which was fantastic.

At the banquet myself, I ran into one of the club advisors who worked with the CCE when I was President of the organization. It was great to reconnect with her, and I do think she *almost* remembered me!

I had to leave the banquet early, as I was meeting my friend Joe to record an episode of our internet radio show Pseudocertainty. Generally, because we live in different states, we have to record these shows over the internet, but if we can do them in person, that's always a better dynamic. So, check the site out, and listen to us blab about GM food, some odd medical procedures, and other fun topics.

On Sunday, I met up with my friend Brian, his sister In, and her husband Rowan for a viewing of "This is Spinal Tap" at the Brattle Theater. I hadn't actually seen the movie in a theater, EVER, so it was a great experience, although the sound of the movie was a bit too low.

After the movie, Brian and I hit the Border Cafe for some fajitas, and he was kind enough to drive me back to the hotel afterwards. We've been friends since about 1983 or so, we have a good shorthand when we meet. I think we can each talk about things in our lives, and we just *know* the context of each other's personalities well enough, that we know when we have to push each other a bit, or be honest, or be a bit quiet about things. We see each other only maybe 2-3 times a year, but it's always quality.

Here's Brian at the Border, talking to the Lovely Sue on the phone... She called during the dinner.

And, just a nice night time Cambridge shot, albeit a bit blurry...

Monday was the start of the conference proper. Here' below is a shot of Boston with a very blue sky...

And, the Prudential Tower.... With a new building next to it. Kind of futuristic, to my eye...

And above, a tailor's shop, with a very familiar name....

Here's a building where my friend Kim lived in while we were both in Boston in the 1993-1994 time frame. I walked by it a few times a day, going back and forth to the hotel, so I had to take a shot of it for her. Note to self - I should actually send it off to her!

Here's my friend Amanda, we were grad students together at MSU back in the mid/late 1990's. We hadn't seen each other since about 1999, at a conference in New Orleans. It was good to catch up with her, and see how her life is going. She's still out in Michigan, working at MSU, and taking doctoral classes. In fact, she's pretty much done with classes, and will be working on her dissertation soon. Good luck to her!

And here's the Beatles back together.

Tricia, myself, Krista, Brian, and Fouad. We were all Community Directors at Boston at the same time, and this group was the core of a really great collegial relationship. This photo is from the Dartmouth social on Monday night, and we actually met up for dinner on Tuesday also, along with some other Dartmouth folks.

This was another walk down memory lane, as reconnecting at these conferences is always emotional in some ways, especially as we all have a deep, abiding respect for each other. We know each other really well as colleagues, and can talk directly with each other about a wide variety of things that both friends and colleagues have to talk about. I'd happily work with any of these people again.

So, that's the conference. I can say that the sessions I went to were pretty decent, but the options were a bit thin on the ground. I have been inspired to plan some presentations for next year, to help bring some good options back to the floor of the conference. Fu and I were talking about some ideas for next year, and I'm sure we'll be in contact over the next year, to see if we actually want to try to put some things together.