Packing!

Today was a very moving-centric day. It started off with me bringing a small piece of exercise equipment to a friend's yard sale, to see if it would sell. I tried to see if it sold, when I stopped by their home later in the afternoon, but no one was around. I'll give a call tomorrow to see what's up.

I then went to buy some boxes for our forthcoming move to the Garden State, and even got a start on some packing before I went around 11:30 or so to help two of my colleagues, who are also leaving Dartmouth, pack up their moving truck. Fortunately, we had about 10 people there to help, and I brought two dolly carts from my cluster, so the loading up actually went fairly quickly.

Of course, it was hard to see my colleagues head out of here, but I know I'll be on their end of the departure day soon enough, so I can empathize on how it'll feel for us. Krista was leaving "for good" today, but Fouad will be working this last week here at Dartmouth, so there's still time to drag the departure out...

In the afternoon, I bought some more boxes (besides finding some boxes for free around town, and in the building), and Sue and I have a bunch of stuff now packed. All of our CD's, DVD's, and about 60-70% of our books are now in boxes. Tomorrow, I'll get the rest of the books, along with some other stuff packed. The movers won't be coming until around July 6th, so we still have plenty of time to get stuff ready.

We took some pictures today, I'll post them up here tomorrow, so you can see what the life in boxes will be like for the next few weeks.

NP: The Black Crowes - Remedy

Job!

So, I accepted a job offer today! In order to save time rewriting things, here's the e-mail I sent out to friends today:
----------------------------
Hello All!

Yes, it's a group e-mail, but I have some good news to share...

Yesterday, I received an offer, and today I accepted said offer, to be the Assistant Director of Residence Life for Community Development at St. Peter's College, down in Jersey City, NJ.My start date is Monday, July 10th. The job provides housing, so we'll still be living in an apartment in the residence halls, but that's okay, as housing costs in the area are quite high, since we're right across the river from Manhattan. It's an hour from "home" down in Ocean Township, where I grew up, and is close to many members of Sue's family. Also, since this job allows me to supervise other professional staff members, it is the natural next step in my career progression.

Besides supervising two other professionals, I'll be working to develop student staff training programs, working with other campus offices to develop and grow a variety of initiatives, and other interesting stuff. St. Peter's College is a Jesuit institution (like Boston Collge, where I got my undergrad degree), and has about 1700 full time undergrads, with about 700 of them living on campus. I'll also be someone who hears judicial/behavioral issues and issues sanctions, which isn't necessarily fun, but is a way to help influence students in positive ways. I could list other job responsibilities, but that's kind of boring... :)

Sue and I will be packing up here for the next few weeks, and my last day at work at Dartmouth will probably be right around the 4th of July.What's coincidental/funny, to me at least, about this job, is that the campus is about 10 blocks away from where a pair of my great-great-great-grandparents lived (Richard and Eliza Coulson) in the mid/late 19th Century, after they came over to the US from Ireland. Maybe I'm a big nerd for knowing these things, with all the genealogy research I do, but there you have it.

For those of you in the NYC/NJ area, since we're relocating, Sue will need to find a job. Right now, she's working as an administrative assistant for one of the academic offices here at Dartmouth. If you know of any good jobs she can apply for, let me know!

Hope all is well with you, I'll write more individually in the coming weeks.

Mike

-----------------------------

So, there you have it. I wasn't really comfortable going into details on here before accepting the position, but I've been looking forward to talking about this for awhile. I'm just very glad that it's working out. I've been looking for a new position that would be a step up for awhile now, and it's finally come.

This job will give me the experience necessary to either move laterally from there in the future, or move up to another sort of position (Director, or other level). I've been getting a lot of well wishes from people, which has been great.

Of course, I will miss the people and location up here. Including my time at Landmark, I've been living up here in the "wild woods" for 8 years. I met Sue up here, fell in love, and all that goes along with that. But now we get to build something new, in a new location that has different things to offer, which will be a good experience.

I really enjoyed the people I met at St. Peter's, and already am looking forward to working with them. In speaking to my future supervisor on the phone today, I think we're going to have a great relationship. It'll be hard at times, to be sure, but that's what is good about change. New challenges to shake off any cobwebs in the brain...

More to come!

NP: Yes - The Ancient (18 Feb 1974)

Show!

On Sunday night, Sue and I made our way down to Northampton, MA, to check out the Tony Levin Band live in concert at a place called the Iron Horse. The show started at 7pm, and we got to the town at about 4:15pm or so. It was about a 100 minute drive from Hanover, so not horrible...

Since we were way early, we went to a nice little vegetarian restaurant to eat. Even though I'm not a vegetarian, I enjoy this place, we've eaten there before when we were in town. I had the vegetarian stir fry, which was quite tasty, if a bit more greasy than I'd like. But, it wasn't in a bad way. After eating, we wandered around the town for a bit (it was *quite* a nice day), and Sue went into a store while I enjoyed sitting on a bench on the street. I noticed a guy with a guitar case standing in front of the store asking passers-by for change. I can only assume that he had played enough guitar for the day that he didn't feel the need to perform any more. I'm always willing to throw in some change, if I have any, to street musicians. But, they do have to be playing when I throw my change in.

We got to the Iron Horse around 6pm or so, and it was pretty full on the floor. It was set up for dinner, and most of the tables on the stage level floor were filled. There was a deuce (restaurant talk for a two person table) right at the top of the stairs to the balcony, so that's where we ended up. It was a good location as we could both see the stage, and not have to share our table with other people. Not that we're not social, but I just didn't feel like sharing my space. You could end up with some cool people, or not... I didn't want to run the risk of the second option.

The Tony Levin Band is made up of 5 people. There's Tony Levin himself, who plays bass and a number of other bottom end instruments (the Chapman Stick, and an electric cello), and sings. Jerry Marotta plays drums and sings, Larry Fast is on keys, Jesse Gress on guitar, and Pete Levin (Tony's brother) also on keys. Those of you into odd music trivia may realize that Tony, Jerry, and Larry were three members of Peter Gabriel's touring band from the late 70's into about 1983. Levin still plays with Gabriel, but Marotta and Fast have moved on to other things. Larry Fast has a number of albums out under the name Synergy, which are all instrumental albums done on synthesizers. Cool stuff! I picked up two of those Synergy CD's at the show, as I already have all of Levin's stuff that was on sale.

Sue and I didn't eat, since we had already eaten, but I did get a coke, and Sue got coffee.

The opener was a duo from Australia called "The Kin." At first, I thought they were a bit too "pretty boy" for me, but they could sing well, and their songs were quite good, actually. I'm not running out to buy their CD's, but they were a good warm up, and performed for about 40 minutes. During their set, I saw some members of Levin's band, including Levin himself, moving in and out of the club.

When Levin and Company came out on stage, they first did a barbershop quartet which mimiced Levin's old King Crimson quartet piece from 1984, except this one was all about his own band. Very fun! The first "real" piece was an instrumental song (Pieces of the Sun, I believe), which started out with Levin on the aforementioned electric cello. The low end was deep enough to vibrate my seat!

I should mention that during the opening act, I got a dessert which was a brownie sundae, which was quite excellent!

Levin's set consisted of a mix of newer songs from his latest CD, other music from his recent albums, and covers of songs from bands or musicians that he's been involved with. He played two King Crimson songs (Sleepless and Elephant Talk), Black Dog from Zeppelin (just for fun), Genesis's "Back in N.Y.C.," Larry Fast's/Synergy's "Phobos," and Peter Gabriel's "On The Air," which was fantastic. The band all seemed to be really enjoying themselves, although Marotta seemed perhaps a bit under the weather, although he sang very well on Sleepless, Back in NYC, and On The Air.

Afterwards, the band was freely available to chat, sign anything that was put in front of them, and just be generally pleasant to talk to. Sue got some photos of me with the band members, which I'll get up here at some point. I talked with Larry Fast about being from NJ, which was a bit of "old home" stuff, and with Tony Levin about coming down from Hanover for the show. He wished us a safe drive back, and all was well. I didn't want to take up too much of their time, I could have really geeked it up with music questions, but chose not to, as they had a good drive back to Woodstock, NY, once the meet and greet was done.

All in all, a very good show! I'd recommend any instrumental music lover to go to their show, or if you're interested in progressive rock in general. Even Sue enjoyed it!

NP: Cheap Trick - Goodnight

Levin!

Just a quick post to say that Sue and I will be heading out soon, to Northampton, MA, to see the Tony Levin Band, tonight at a place called the Iron Horse.

Levin is a bass player who has played with John Lennon, Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, and many others. He has a few solo albums out, mainly instrumental work, that are quite good. It should be a fun show... I will post an update tomorrow to share what the show was like...

Confidential!

Scribbler, aka Baron, made a comment on my last blog about job searching, and keeping things quiet versus being open during a job search. I should probably talk a bit about what it's like doing a job search in this field, so that readers out there know context.

Now, I don't know if this is for everyone, or just me, but in general I'm very open about talking about looking for a job. First off, at least in this situation I'm in now, it's because I actually still like the job I'm in. I'm very open with the fact that I do enjoy my present job, and I'm not looking under a negative cloud. It's just that it's time to find some new challenges with work. If I do end up staying here for longer, I can find different challenges with my present job, but it's becoming tougher and tougher to do that, without people going, "Why don't you find a better job out there?"

I obviously tell my references/supervisors that I'm looking, and my immediate co-workers. Of course, friends and family hear about it in a different context. With colleagues who I don't work with in an immediate way, if they ask the question, I'm open about talking on the topic of my job search. And, I'm also willing to strategically let it drop in conversation, if I think it could help with my search in some way. That may sound a bit more scheming than I actually am, as it's more in reference to just being willing to accept an offer of advice from people with more experience.

This year, I've been a bit more open with students I work with about my search. If they ask the question, I'm willing to talk about it, with making it clear that if I don't find it, I do still like the job I'm in. If they think I'm not really invested in staying at Dartmouth, then why would they want to work with me? As I said before, fortunately, I don't have to pretend that I like my work, I do actually enjoy it!

So, that's the context I'm in, for my job search...

Questions?

NP: The Who - Behind Blue Eyes (3 Sept 1989)

Closing!

Tomorrow is closing/move out day for all non-graduating students here at Dartmouth. I get to go around in the morning, starting at about 9am, and check all the rooms in the cluster to make sure people are on their way out. It's actually a fun time, because most people are either gone already, or are on their way to leave. Most people want to leave at this time of year, as it's really the end, for now...

Tonight, a number of us went out for CD Tricia's birthday, to a local chain restaurant called Margarita's. It's Mexican, but not the most authentic place in the world. Still, a good time was had by all, although the service was a bit slow.

Me, I got home around 8pm, exercised, and am now writing this. I was watching my new DVD of the movie "The Aristocrats" earlier, which I recommend to anyone interested in comedy, although it's not for the faint of heart... Lots of naughty language, and gross stuff abounds. Sign me up!

My general status on life right now is that it seems like a lot of things are in holding patterns. Work is good, but with doing a search, it's all in flux. I may be here in 2 months, I may be somewhere else, depending on how things go with interviews, offers, and the like. I am dealing with the ambiguity okay, but it's more an annoyance than anything else.

NP: Rachmaninov - Suite No. 1 Op. 5, 1st Movement

Hampshire!

Okay, I'm back in NH now. I arrived back from NJ yesterday (Saturday) at about 3pm, after having breakfast with my dad and stepmother at a nice little diner in the old hometown.

How did the interview go? It went well, from my point of view, although there may be salary issues that could be unresolvable, if an offer gets made to me. We'll see how it goes, if anything develops, I'll let you know.

It was good to be at home in NJ. I got to sit on my mom's roof deck and look at the ocean the first day I was there, and that evening (Thursday), watched some distant lightning to the north, also from the roof. Very cool...

Today, Sue and I went to go see the new X-Men movie. Sue's always liked the series more than I have (hello, Hugh Jackman!), but I don't actively dislike the movies. However, there was no real emotional resonance for me with the events in this film, although there should have been, as the movie was trying to press all my buttons. Ah well, there's plenty of other good movies out there to spend time on in the future...

On the way back here yesterday, I heard a bit of an opera by Beethoven on one of the NPR stations I listen to, I believe it was called Fidelius. I'm going to have to pick up a copy of it, as the bit that I heard was quite amazing...

NP: Keith Jarrett - John's Abbey

Gaseous!

From an article on the BBC News Site:

"This time period is associated with a very enhanced green house effect," explained Appy Sluijs, a palaeoecologist from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and the lead author on one of the papers.

"Basically, it looks like the Earth released a gigantic fart of green house gases into the atmosphere - and globally the Earth warmed by about 5C (41F)."

Sometimes, the comedy comes to you...

NP: Genesis - Hairless Heart

Hot!

Here we are, at the end of May, and it's a bit of a steamy hotness up here in Hanover. I haven't checked the temperature, but I would guess it's in the mid 80's F, with a high level of humidity. It's not horrible, but I'm waiting for a thunderstorm to help break the weather. There was some lightning earlier this evening, around 8ish, but no storm developed. Ah well, perhaps while sleeping...

I'm generally packed for my travels south tomorrow. What, you are probably asking, does a well dressed Mike wear for a job interview? Well, here it is, courtesy of a photo I took back at the ACPA conference I attended in March.

A little blurry, but hey, what do you want?! A bisquit?

I've spent the evening preparing some of my own questions for the interview, reviewing the college's website to get familiar with their campus and their approach to the world of Res Life I work in. We shall see how it goes, I'll report when I can about it, upon my return to the Great White North.

Sue's visiting NJ right now, and she's coming back tomorrow, so I'm sure we'll pass each other on the road at some point. Of course, we won't really know where, but we'll be able to make some good estimates once I'm down there, and she's up here.

NP: John McLaughlin - Sing Me Softly of the Blues

Travel!

I'm preparing to travel down to NJ on Thursday, for a job interview on Friday. We'll see how it goes. I don't want to share too much about it, but obviously, if I get the job, I'll fill you in on all the details.

I will say right now, without jinxing myself, that I feel pretty good about the possibilities for this one. Of course, as I've jokingly said to some people, relationships can be fickle...

I had a *great* three day weekend, sleeping late, hanging out with Sue, and just generally relaxing. I slept late on all three days, and just took it easy. Memorial Day weekend is one of the few three day weekends we get here at Dartmouth, so it was good to be able to enjoy it.

On Monday afternoon, I watched the DVD of the new Battlestar Galactica, which I watched when it was initially on the Sci-Fi channel a few years ago. I enjoyed it then, but I haven't really been able to watch the series regularly (it's on my cue from Netflix). Watching the movie the second time, I enjoyed it a lot more, and saw a lot more depth and planning in the series. Here's some bulleted thoughts, that may have been answered or shown in the series since the pilot aired...

• At the end, Adama has a note on his desk, stating that there are 12 Cylon "types." Who left the note? As far as I know, Baltar was the only one who knew that.
• I'm a bit unclear if the 12 types mean that there are only 12 of the humanoid cylons in existence, or are there 12 models with multiple copies? There are doubles we see at the end, but are they part of the 12?
• Does Baltar really have a chip in his head? That was a bit too reminicent of "Harvey" from Farscape, being planted in Crichton's head, for my tastes... Although, it's not an uncommon SF plot trick, so I really can't hold it against BG.
• Who was the female Cylon (the blonde one, does she have a name?) meeting with at Caprica City after she left Baltar's company?
• Baltar's trick of blaming the PR guy for being a Cylon actually paid off, as he was truly a Cylon. Did Baltar's "test" actually pick something up? Or was he "guided" to choose him as a patsy, by the chip in his head?
• And, if there is a chip in Baltar's head, can it be used by the Cylon's to trace the fleet?

Those are my thoughts for now. I look forward to watching the series to see where it goes. I did see part of the season 2 finale, so I know where the show is going in some general areas, but it'll be interesting to see how it gets there...

NP: Queen + Paul Rodgers - All Right Now

Kids!

Today, Sue and I were in the Dartmouth Bookstore, and a kid, probably about 14-15, approached me, looking for donations to a charity for Darfur. I gave him a few bucks, because he did have fliers for the charity.

I've seen other kids on the street up here, asking for money for a variety of charities. It's an interesting way to get money, to just ask people on the street, without even a table set up with info, or any other "normal" charity activities, like a bake sale or other things.

I don't think the kids were lying about it at all, but it does seem like an odd way of raising money. I'm kind of surprised the people who run the bookstore allow solicitation like that in the store... Or perhaps they don't, and the kid was just getting away with something.

Ah well, whatever the deal is, I'm only out a few bucks, and who knows, it *might* actually go to charity.

NP: Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists - A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur

Ice Cream!

Today was "Free Ice Cream" day on the Hanover green, sponsored by the President's office here at Dartmouth. I got a Banana creamsicle. Tasty. I should have taken a picture of it to immortalize it for all of you, but alas, not.

"Not" was the Word for the Colbert Report last night. Watch for bears!

Today was a good day, as it was great weather here, and I got a check in the mail from proctoring the MCAT back in April. I don't have a lot of money on my credit card right now, but the check went to pay off a little less than half of it for now. Once I get paid next week, the rest of the card will get paid off. I'm a bit anal about credit card debt, I really like keeping it at zero.

This is the non sequitur blog today.

I'm working on wrapping up writing evaluations for my undergraduate staff at work. I have three more to complete, then I go over them again to see if I missed anything important. I should have them out in e-mail to the staff on Friday, and then we chat about the evals before they leave for the end of the academic year.

If you're in to odd e-mail generators that talk to you in Monkey, take a look at THIS!

Other than all this, I have nothing of real interest or content to speak of right now...

NP: 3; Hoedown - 14 April 1988

Bird!

I wanted to flip you all the bird, so here it is...

It's a blue jay, one of my favorite birds, that I saw outside of my cluster the other day. This was taken with my digital camera, with the zoom at it's utmost zoominest... I was hoping for a closer shot, but the bird wouldn't sit still. Damn you bird, with your free will!

In other news, we're getting closer and closer to the end of the academic year. I've got to make some sort of brownies for a Chocolate Fest event we're having on Thursday evening here in the cluster. I think I also have to get a haircut, as the last one I got wasn't the best... Ah, my life is so hard.

And for a final photo, here's one of a giant milk bottle, for your enjoyment...

Lube!

So, I had a doctor's appointment this morning...

There were latex gloves...

There was a small packet in silver foil...

There was fear.

However, all worked out... I had a regular checkup scheduled, and after the nurse took my blood pressure (120 over 70 or so, thank you very much), she told me to get into "the gown," and the doctor would be in to see me in a few minutes.

After changing into my stylish gown, I noticed a pair of latex gloves laid out on the shelf, with a packet of stuff next to them. I thought, "No, it can't be... I'm not 40 yet!" I stood up to look, and sure enough, the small packet was a packet of lubrication.

AAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!

I was concerned.

I told myself, to calm down, relax, and prepare for the inevitable. I planned to close my eyes and think of England, if it came to it.

However, besides checking out some other plumbing, there was no intrusion into unintrudible areas. So, all was right with the world. The sun shone, the sky cleared, and everyone was above average intelligence, just for a moment.

More happened today, but really, what more could compete with that?

Darko!

So, I watched the movie Donnie Darko today, my first DVD from Netflix. It is truly this generation's Jacob's Ladder...

Actually, it wasn't a bad film, an interesting ride, but I kind of had the movie figured out in the first 10 minutes or so, and was hoping for a surprise. However, I was let down. I did watch the Director's Cut, so I was thinking that this would be more oblique than a suit's vision of what the movie should be to sell to a mass crowd. We all deal with disappointment in our lives...

But then, after viewing Donnie Darko, I watched the original King Kong. Stilted by today's standards, it's still a great film. I remember seeing it for the first time as a kid, on Channel 9 out of Secaucus, NJ, most likely on Thanksgiving. For some reason, King Kong was a Thanksgiving film. The dinosaurs were great to this kid's eyes, and I did get the sadness of Kong at the end, even as a youth.

In other news, we had a relatively quiet Green Key weekend here at Dartmouth. Nothing too exciting happened, from what I've heard, which at this point, is not much. I'll get a much more thorough update tomorrow at work. I did spend the time in this weekend getting some genealogy work done. It's always fun to get back into the family history, especially because I've taken some time away from it recently. This calendar year, I haven't done much at all with it. Now, I feel prepped to dive back into it.

That's about it for now...

NP: John McLaughlin - Django

Green Key!

So, this weekend is "Green Key" up at Dartmouth. It's the last of our big three "party" weekends, with the first two being Homecoming in the Fall, and Winter Carnival, appropriately enough, in the Winter. It's raining up here now, but I don't think it'll keep students who are focused on having a good time from having one.

A number of us from work went out to eat tonight at a place called Lui-Lui's in West Lebanon, to continue celebrating Meg's new job, but the new piece tonight was that her partner Sarah (I believe there's an H on the end of there) just signed a lease for a condo over in Vermont. They'll be moving near the end of June, and I'm sure they'll have a good time with the place.

So, I'm listening to XM radio through the AOL website right now. I have the "progressive" channel on, but so far, all the music has kind of, well, sucked. There's some King Crimson coming up, which should redeem the channel, at least temporarily.

Possible job news on the horizon. Watch this space for updates...

NP: Camel - Lady Fantasy (on XM-AOL. At least this song doesn't suck)

Boston!

I was in Boston this weekend, from Saturday to Sunday, visiting Joe, phellow Pseudocertain-host, and old college chum. It was fun, although a lot of rain happened, so it was a very indoor visit.

Slept on the floor, which wasn't as horrible as it sounds. I can sleep pretty much anywhere, so sleeping wasn't the issue, although I did feel a bit out of sorts the next day, as my aged bones were creaking on my drive back to New Hampshire.

In other news, I installed Dreamweaver on my non-laptop computer, which will make it easier to update my home on the web, with music from a variety of projects. Expect to see a lot more TOOL and Nick's Eef and Be Ho material posted in the next day or two.

Oh, I started a MySpace site, mainly because Baron did. I like to be a copycat. I probably won't do much with it, but it's good to appropriate Zorknapp so that no one else can use it.

NP: I'm in Brace, so I'm overhearing a conversation about role playing games...

Thursday!

Nothing like the day before the last day of work for the week, is there?

Today, I interviewed someone for a job here at Dartmouth who went to Boston College, and lived in Shaw House, the place where I spent the first two years of my college life. However, he lived there in the late 90's/early 00's, which was about 10 years after I was there.

I'll be heading into Boston this weekend, to hang out with Joe (unfortunately, Brian will be in NJ, so I'll miss him this time), maybe we'll head on out to BC for a stroll down memory lane...

You know, I've *never* actually seen a street called "Memory Lane." There's got to be one out there, don't you think? Or is there only one in some Twilight Zone netherworld?

I worked on genealogy today for the first time in awhile, inputing some Scottish records into my Family Tree Maker program. I still have a few more to do, but I didn't want to spend all evening sitting at the computer. So of course, now I'm writing a blog. Is that irony?

Tomorrow, some of us from work are heading down to Manchester, NH to take in a minor league baseball game, and to go out to eat afterwards. I'm not a big baseball person, but it should be fun... I'll bring my camera for exciting action shots.

NP: Richard Lewis - Dates from Hell, Mistake Warnings, and Actresses (1985)

May!

On 10 May 1851, my great-great-great grandparents, John Lord and Jane Lang, got married in Trinity Church, Newark, New Jersey.

On 10 May 1890, John Lord died at age 61 at his home of 164 Grant Avenue, East Newark, New Jersey.

So, on this anniversary date, I reflect on how if either of these events had not happened when they did, I may not be sitting here right now.

NP: Velvet Underground - Afterhours - June 1993

Photos?!

Okay, will I actually get to post photos tonight??? Let's see...

Yay! Seems to be working! This is a photo of the crowds at the event, before the Relay officially started on Friday evening. CD Dan is in the lower left corner of the shot.

Here's CD Tricia and CD Dan, looking at something off in the distance, I'm not quite sure what. The event was indoors this year, which was okay, but I prefered it last year, when we got to walk outside on the track by Dartmouth's football field. When it got chilly in the evening outdoors, it gave more of an incentive to keep walking...

Daniel, beaten down by life...

People on our team (or just out supporting us) sitting, while a few of us walked. The idea of Relay is that at least one person from your team should be walking at all times. If that person sits down, someone else goes in their place. Relay, get it???

Krista, laughing at something, most likely something inappropriate!

The Luminary ceremony, which was all done with Christmas lights this year, since there couldn't be candles by the indoor track...

And, to end, a close up of CD Fu... This could be a good album cover, don't you think?

If you still want to donate, go to this site... Thanks to those of you who have already given for the American Cancer Society.

NP: King Crimson, Epitaph - 22 Nov 1968