Pocket Full of Sunshine

BAM! BAM!

2009-12-01T13:00:00.001-06:00

Using my personal blog space for unique way to win office game. Boo-ya, Tribblito. Boo-ya! BTW, you can send this link to Dee if you'd like to get her.

~Susan "buck shot" Ragland

The Perfect Conference Companion

2009-10-05T23:57:00.005-05:00

You lie in wait, perched, ready for your turn to be chosen. Eager to do your duty. Only called upon for special gatherings--feeling used! Used only for your efficiency, people mock your appearance. They scoff at you. Is it your fault that your functionality far outweighs what society deems as attractive?

At the onset, you are aware that you will only be accepted for a short while. You humbly submit yourself to our service, outwardly loathed, yet secretly loved.

We use you. Yes, we all do. We have no qualms about strutting you about as our latest accessory when we can use you--when we all use you, like lemmings, we all accept and use you in unison.

We actually wait in line almost begging for you, but only once a year. We will use you for a few days, then toss you aside, sneering at your geekiness. Lo! Someone dares mention we ought to reconsider your social status, and she, too, is mocked!

No other, friend or foe, is so willing to proudly shout your name. No other so bold as to introduce you to others, buy you a drink and hang around all week, never really leaving your presence. No other so willing to hold your business cards for you while you take potty break. No! No one else so faithful to make sure you make it back to your hotel with your room key, driver's license, credit card, conference schedule, ink pen, lip gloss and Tony Dunn t-shirt money...no one. NO ONE! No one, but you, conference neck wallet. Conference neck wallet, I love you. And if I could teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony, I'd also teach it to embrace the neck wallet.

Honobia - Chapter 3

2009-09-23T17:55:00.001-05:00

We'd have to worry about camping arrangements later. I had to literally shake my head to get the images of the past ten minutes out of my mind's eye. The slick roads and fog were where I needed to focus my attention. There would be plenty of time to try to grasp what just happened after we made our way down from the mountain.

As we headed south toward Idabel, with Jared and Clay following behind us, Cody and I sat silently for a few miles. Cody finally broke the silence as he grinned and said cheerfully, "We're going to a Bigfoot meeting!"

As we drove the hour and a half down to Idabel, Cody and I replayed every moment, every nuance of what the ladies told us. I wondered what Clay and Jared were thinking as we made our way to the separation point of Idabel. We couldn't help but laugh about what happened and hoped that Jared and Clay really did understand that this was just not something we could pass up.

After we parted ways, Cody and I discussed how we would kill time. We still had a good five or six hours until our meeting. Our meeting. We decided that we'd set out to see all sorts of things in southeastern Oklahoma, so we'd just see more before we headed back north.

About 15 minutes west of Idabel was the Wheelock Mission Church: the oldest church in Oklahoma. Wheelock Mission was also an academy for American Indian girls. While we were there, it began to rain again. Being in this place, with the cold rain didn't dampen our spirits. It didn't even wash away what was in the back of both our minds. I kind of felt sorry for Wheelock. I felt sorry that I wasn't enjoying it the way I would have if I weren't so eager and scared at the same time to go back to Honobia later that night. I felt sorry for Wheelock that it wasn't enough for me. I realized it was probably irrational to feel sorry for a place: it has no feelings. But really, the whole of the day seemed irrational, so I decided that I didn't really care. Feeling sorry for an inanimate object seemed to be the least of things that others would deem me crazy for thinking or doing today.

The only thing that seemed to capture my attention was when we discovered the old cemetery beside the old church at Wheelock. The gates to drive into the cemetery were locked, but the fence was low. Those that know me know I fretted for several minutes, weighing the pros and cons of jumping the fence. By the time I made my move, Cody was already on the other side, several feet away, reading the headstones that were still legible after all the years.

Being there, in the midst of tombstones well over a hundred years old, gave me the same feeling as when I stand at the edge of the ocean. Small. Insignificant and important all in the same moment. I wondered what adventures some of these people had. I wondered what they'd think about us going to a Bigfoot meeting.

By the time Cody and I hopped back over the fence to get in the car, the week of camping, the day's events, the rain, the fog, the weight of what was to come became palpable. Cody and I were determined to continue to find adventure, right up to the 7 p.m. meeting, even though we were both growing weary, neither wanting to admit it.

We decided that there'd be all kinds of stuff to do near Broken Bow. At the least we could go to Beaver's Bend State Park. On the way, we saw a sign that directed us to a wildlife refuge to the east of Highway 3. The right hand turn we took ended up being more than just a turn off the road. It was a turn in our friendship. I can honestly say that no friendship is stronger than after you have a fight and come out on the other side laughing. Like forging iron, really.

What's funny in hindsight is that our fight wasn't over someone making a wrong turn, or over someone thinking they were right and the other "knowing" they're really wrong. As we drove and drove and drove, unable to find the wildlife refuge or another sign to help us find our way, the tension grew in the car. Not from our inability to find where we were going, but over someone taking the lead! I wanted to know what Cody thought we should do. He wanted me to be a woman about it and make a decision!

Somehow we ended up on the muddiest roads I've ever seen. Clay mud. Thick mud. The kind that can get a little Saturn car stuck quickly. The worse the roads became, the less we spoke to each other. AGH!

In silence we drove. The only sound from me was asking to check his side to make sure I wouldn't get stuck. The only sound from him alerting me to mud I may not have seen. Which road should I take? He wouldn't say. Should I turn here? He wouldn't say. He wasn't doing it to be stubborn (well, a little maybe). He was convinced that I was capable of making my own decisions and could get us out of there. In hindsight, he was right, but in that car, on those roads, in the rain, I was ticked!

We finally made it back to Highway 3. We both rode in silence still. He took a nap and I fumed. We still had a good hour to drive to make it back to Honobia and it was about 5:30 now.

As I drove toward Honobia, I felt as if two entities were warring. One drawing us in toward the small community center in the middle of the clearing, the other begging me not to go. I still had the childish notion that were about to be sacrificed to sasquatch. An offering from the community so he'd leave their loved ones alone. Besides that, I wanted to cry! We're about to have the best story ever and we weren't even speaking to each other.

As I turned off of Highway 3 onto 144, with darkness encroaching, I was getting even more melancholy with the fog and the drizzle: everything seemed eery. Cody seemed to be awake then, but still silence. Then as quickly as we'd gotten angry with each other, it passed, as though it hadn't happened at all when Cody said, "This is creepy!" Haha. Indeed.

Only then were we able to laugh at what we were doing. BAH hahahah! We laughed so hard I cried. Maybe it was tears for the stress, the sadness at our fight and now the hilarity of our situation. We were driving BACK to Honobia. For a meeting. A Bigfoot meeting! It was only then that I confided to Cody my fears about being sacrificed to the beast. We both laughed even harder at that thought.

With each mile that we grew closer to the meeting place, my heart raced faster, giddy with excitement of the unknown. The left hand turn back down the only paved road in Honobia was almost more than I could bear! The sun had long since set and the only light was from the two lone street lights near the old schoolhouse that served as the community center. There were a few cars here already.

We decided that even if we didn't believe Bigfoot existed, why chance it? We looked at each other and reiterated our promise from earlier: no camping in Honobia.

Don't Kill the PM

2009-09-16T08:31:00.007-05:00

My friend and co-worker, David, has begun creating a comic of his (and our, I guess) experiences in various Web-related roles through his 15+ years in the Web world. Enjoy!

Don't Kill the PM

Ya, we know there's a typo. I'll re-post once it's corrected, but wanted to go ahead and share.

Honobia - Chapter 2

2009-09-13T20:17:00.001-05:00

As Cody headed toward the edge of the woods and I toward Jared and Clay's truck I was replaying the past 5 minutes in my head. The interval between pulling up to the Honobia Community Center and the point at which all of our weekend plans changed seemed to take only an instant, but also moved in movie-like slow motion.

When we pulled up to the Community Center and were unable to convince Jared and Clay to get out of the truck, and were unable to get the community folks to notice us, we took note of the only one even interested in us: the little boy with the giant moth. This moth was the size of a dessert plate, no lie! And it was just resting in the palm of this boy's hand, as though whoever cast a spell on the town's people, as they all went about their business without even a sideways glance to the strangers in town, cast a similar spell on the moth. As the people went about sawing and hammering and chatting with one another, so the moth was content to lie in the palm of the boy.

As Cody and I were looking in the old schoolhouse, feeling like we were spectators in a theater, the actors oblivious to the audience, the boy was the only one to speak to us. He showed us his moth with father-like adoration. As he was talking to us, I was afraid that his speaking to strangers was a bad idea, even though I was the stranger. Completely unprovoked, he confided that he knows where Bigfoot goes. What? Cody and I tried not to make eye contact, but this is WHY we drove to Honobia! This is why we drug Clay and Jared here, prolonging our arrival in Shreveport: Bigfoot. Not to see him, of course, but to hear the stories.

His mother appeared at the open door of the schoolhouse--not out of concern for the strangers that were speaking to her son, or because she heard the fanciful stories he was telling: she just happened to pass by. The boy introduced us to his mother. She was friendly. She was also from out of town visiting her husband's family and helping out with the construction on the building.

Cody, ever inquisitive, asked her about the work being done, we were passing through (that's a stretch!) and heard that there was a festival here. As the boy and his moth waited patiently, his mom said the words that changed the course of my and Cody's weekend plans. "You comin' to the meetin'?"

"What meeting?" I am still not sure if it was Cody or I that verbalized the question burning in both of our minds.

"The Bigfoot meeting, " was her reply. I was dumbfounded. Did I hear that right? And as if Cody could read my mind, hearing my question, I heard his reply with his eyes, lit up like a kid at Christmas. She must have said what I thought I heard. :-)

"Oh, Bigfoot meeting? We didn't know about it. When is it?" Cody, trying to be as casual as a pair of sweats, asked for the both of us.

"Tonight at 7, I think, but my mother-in-law knows more. She's kind of in charge of it. She's back in the kitchen if you wanna ask her about it."

My jaw dropped in my mind, but not physically. I had to keep my cool. It would be unfair of me to inadvertently pass judgment on their strong belief that the things they've experienced are attributed to Bigfoot's existence.

I eyed Cody for some sort of guidance. When he entered the building, I followed. We found our way to the back of the building and found who seemed to be the matriarch of the town. We asked about the meeting her daughter-in-law alluded to, and she confirmed a 7 p.m. start, right here in the kitchen of the community center. While we were both full of questions, our minds aflutter, we managed to control ourselves and just find out the nature of "the Bigfoot meeting". Up to this point (all 2 minutes since hearing about the meeting) we weren't sure if it was a meeting to go find him, a meeting to debate the merits of having faith in his existence or even a meeting to offer up some poor wayward travelers to the beast as a sacrifce to keep their town safe. That last option was the one that kept nagging at me. I think I watch too much science fiction. Still, it would always be at the back of my mind.

She told us that the meeting was to look into "startin' up a Bigfoot club". Apparently a deputy sherrif in a neighboring county was going to talk to us (she said "us"! Does that mean we're welcome to come????) about his efforts in locating Bigfoot. It then occured to me then that Bigfoot is always mentioned as a single entity, a proper name. If he existed, then surely there were more, but I mentally shook the thought away. I needed to focus on matter at hand: there was meeting. to start a club. and we were invited!

As she bid us farewell and safety until we met again at 7, my mind raced and I'm sure my eyes were darting about, searching the floor for answers as we headed back to the side door of the old schoolhouse. What would Clay and Jared say? I knew they wouldn't come back for a Bigfoot club meeting, although Cody and I never verbalized our desire to come back, nor did we really tell the woman we were, in fact coming back, Cody and I both knew we were. We had to. It was our immediate destiny.

When we reached the door and the three steps down to the grassy ground, soggy from the mist and fog of the past 18 hours, the boy and his moth were waiting for us. He beckoned us to go with him to the woods so he could show us where Bigfoot has crossed. He wanted us to see the creek where Bigfoot "prolly takes his bath." I was still agahst. And still Cody and I hadn't even discussed changing our plans, but I said, "I'm going to go tell Jared and Clay what's up and see if they want to go on to Shreveport without us." Cody nodded in agreement and headed off toward the clearing's edge as I made it Jared's truck.

"So..." I sheepishly said to Jared and Clay. "There's a meeting tonight. Here at 7. A Bigfoot club meeting."

I'm pretty sure Clay stared at me, wide-eyed and laughing. Jared just looked at me with a slightly annoyed look, but amused nonetheless. "A Bigfoot meeting???" I'm not sure which one said it, but they both thought I was nuts. I wondered if they thought my friend Cody, whom I'd only known for two and a half months, had put me up to this.

They both confirmed that they did not want to come back at 7 for a Bigfoot meeting, but they understood if Cody and I wanted to change up our plans. No big deal. We'd all go down to Idabel to check some stuff out, get Jared and Clay on their way to Shreveport, and then Cody and I could come back north for our meeting. OUR meeting. Weird.

As Clay, Jared and I finished up figuring out the new plans, Cody came back with the biggest grin on his face: he'd gotten many stories from the little boy. I'd have to wait for tonight to get my own earful, and an earful it would be. We bid farewell to the boy and his moth, got in my car with Jared and Clay following and headed to Idabel. The whole time my mind wandered and wondered what the night would bring. The only thing I knew was that our week of camping would not find me camping in Honobia. Cody agreed. No camping in Honobia...

Honobia - Chapter 1

2009-09-12T13:53:00.006-05:00

The slow drizzle of rain seems so comforting today: it reminds me of south Louisiana. All I need now is for a train to go by about a block or two from here, to smell mom's burning incense and I'd swear I was back home (I already have her favorite Pearl Jam music playing on my computer). Today is Saturday: cleaning day. Mom, I promise I tried to get my chores done first this morning before getting on the computer. Kitchen is clean, laundry sorted and washing, but vacuuming doesn't call to me like the computer does. :-) And finally writing this story down for Cody just seemed like the right thing to do. Haha.

You know how sometimes you start thinking about one thing, then realize a few minutes later you're on another topic altogether and you aren't sure how your brain made those leaps? Such is my reminiscing today. The rain had me thinking about being about 10 years old in Addis and now I'm remembering parts of a crazy road trip with one of my best friends, Cody. Maybe the weather is the connecting factor in my memory leaps from 1987 to 2006.

True story. While most of our Spring Break road trip was sunny and mild, a few days spent in the southeastern part of Oklahoma, deep in the heart of Kiamichi country, the weather was markedly chilly, rainy, foggy: somber. Perhaps someday I'll write about the trip up to the point of Friday, but today Friday is where we start. Friday found me and Cody at Robber's Cave State Park in Wilburton, Oklahoma. The day was overcast with foreboding clouds gathering, which was distressing to me because two more friends, Clay and Jared, were going to drive to Wilburton to meet us to camp out and then head to Shreveport Saturday morning. I just knew Jared would NOT like camping in the rain. Spoiler alert: he didn't! :-)

So, Friday Cody and I climbed all over the rocks and caves in the state park. There's also a huge face of rock called Devil's Slide that I braved. As it grew dark and the about the time Clay and Jared arrived it began to rain. Great. Just in time to get the six-man tent up and then do nothing. I could almost see the irritation level rise in Jared's neck and face like a thermometer. During the night we were each cocooned inside our individual sleeping bags, awake, with sleep being an elusive nymph, trying to stay warm, and I was crammed against the wall of the tent, trying to not touch the tent and break the surface tension (to no avail--I was wet).

In the morning, after we all got showers, we took Clay and Jared to climb the rocks. We then loaded up our stuff and drove southeast to Talahina. We wanted to get some lunch and then head to Honobia (pronounced ho - nub - EE). Cody found out that Honobia'd had a Bigfoot festival the previous fall, and we just knew we had to go visit this town. Now, I'm not saying I believe Bigfoot exists, but come on! Bigfoot festival? We HAD to go check out this place!

Honobia is nestled in the fringes of the Kiamichi mountains about 25 miles from the Oklahoma-Arkansas border, as the crow flies. Clay and Jared followed me and Cody up the winding road to Honobia. The drive up in the cold, grey drizzle felt like we were in a scary movie on the Sci Fi channel. I really felt that at any moment Bigfoot could jump out of the trees lining the mountain road. And I actually wondered if he had as we passed a Bigfoot Crossing road sign. Seriously?

Finally a break in the trees revealed a small ghost-town. Well, we thought it was a ghost town, but in reality it was just a small town. A Saturday. No one around. Not even at the small general store. Yes, general store. Behind the general store were a few houses and mobile homes. We were afraid someone might come shoot us thinking we were trying to break into the store, so we were trying to quickly determine our next move: do we write this up as one-point Honobia, zero-road trip fun? Do we explore the dirt roads that were quickly becoming mud? All we saw were mud roads. We thought we'd passed a paved road just past the bend in the road. We decided to try that one, then get the heck outta Dodge, er, Honobia. I was getting creeped out.

We got in our vehicles and went back to the paved road that wound around for about a mile. Trees and a creek were to the left of us and a house or two to the right. We then came to a clearing: a large field with what looked like an old white-washed, wooden schoolhouse plopped in the center. There were cars here. Life! As we got closer, we saw the sign that read "Honobia Community Center" and of course, another Bigfoot Crossing street sign. Ah. At last.

We pulled up near the other cars and trucks. Cody and I got out to assess the situation. Jared and Clay refused to get out of their truck. haha. The schoolhouse was a lot longer that it appeared from the road. From the side where we were, we could tell the original building had been expanded. I wondered if it was from expansion of the town itself or from the needs of the festival.

Cody and I walked up to one of the handful of open doors, as we heard the sounds of saws and smelled freshly cut wood. It appeared they were laying new floor in the community center. Here we were in a small town, two strangers walking into the community center full of what appeared to be every one of the town's residents and no one looked up. They all kept at their work. It felt like we were in the Twilight Zone. Cody finally broke our cloak of invisibility when he asked a woman what was going on. She slowly turned her attention to us, un-phased by our presence and replied, "We're doing some improvements to get ready for the festival." Sweet. Confirmation that we were, indeed, where we hoped we'd be. But after her response, she returned to ignoring us, going about her business. Only then did a little boy about 8 or 9 years old walk up to us and tell us to come with him. "Let me show you something."

Cody and I just looked at each other, almost speaking to each other telepathically. Would we get shot by some parents wondering why we were talking to their son? Why is this kid walking to the edge of the clearing toward the trees, beckoning us? We glanced at Jared and Clay. I headed to Jared's truck as Cody walked toward the boy.

The Poor Electron

2009-05-29T13:14:00.005-05:00

I've been pondering how the electron feels: spinning around through life, not ever really feeling like you belong to the in-crowd, you know those protons and neutrons that stick together in the nucleus.

I mean, sometimes, if you're the only electron, another electron from another atom will try to hook up with you, but you know you're just being used for your ionic personality, and will be dropped as soon as you're no longer needed.

I wonder if it's the electron's fault that it is how it is, did it have any control over its destiny to BE an electron? Can it change its circumstances?

I kinda feel badly for the electron. Maybe it wouldn't have such a negative personality if it was loved a little more.

The Great Spider Fiasco of '09

2009-01-21T11:01:00.002-06:00

For those of you familiar with the "Fiddleback Spider in the House of Huge Debacle of '06", there's no need to get nervous...this story is not bad like that one was. :-P

Last Wednesday afternoon I was driving home from work, heading west on the freeway out of Fort Worth, the sunlight peerting (yes, it's a word...just ask Russell Neill) my eyes in the rear view mirrors. Traffic tends to be heavy on the way home, and Wednesday was no different. Even amid all the blinding sunlight, it was still mighty chilly in my car so I turned on the heater. Well, I thought the heater. :-) Still getting used to the new vehicle's instruments, my "muscle memory" actually had me turn on the defroster. Whatev. It was warm. :-)

This is where a normal drive home took a turn for the worse. Not long after turning on the heat, a being the size of a nickel-- black, fuzzy with white dots--rushed toward me. I am sure he gave me the evil eye. I noticed his lingering gaze as he stopped at the edge of the dashboard. I know inside he was contemplating jumping at me. He wondered if he could jump the distance between us. His heart was racing as he thought, "Can I make it?" My heart raced as I thought, "Can he make it?"

Things seemed to move in slow motion yet in fast forward all at once. I frantically searched the front seat for something to place upon the spider to impede his forward motion (read: squish him). I could find nothing except my coat. So I grabbed the sleeve of my black coat as I kept an eye on Fuzzy. At the moment I grabbed the coat he made his move. He ran down onto the gas gauge! ACK! So I firmly placed the coat sleeve upon the area as well. My mind was now aflutter. Did I get him? Where is he? If I move the coat will he jump on me?

I decided I could not make it home in this condition. I peeled across three lanes of traffic to the nearest exit. Again, no small feat in rush hour traffic. I stopped at a sports car mechanic shop at the exit and pulled into the parking lot sideways. I had to know if I got the spider!

As I did all of this my hand was still pressed in the coat sleeve against the gas gauge. I had to switch hands to put the car in park and undo my seat belt. I then switched hands again and jumped out of the car. When I moved the coat sleeve there was no spider. No guts. ACK!!!! Where did he go? My heart pounded harder. Where was he? Was he watching me now?

I ran to the passenger side and using only a finger and thumb flung my coat, sweater and purse onto the pavement. I began systematically stomping my coat and sweater. And by systematically, I mean frantically and in no recognizable sense of order. I then dumped out everything from my purse, fearing the spider ran inside to only scare me later, or worse, take up residence in my apartment like a stowaway!

About this time I thought maybe the spider was on me, so I began frantically flinging my hands about my hair to dislodge any unwanted pests. Simultaneously a mechanic comes out to my hair flinging and stomping of the coat and asked, "Everything ok? You spill something?"

I answered, "No. There's a spider in my car." I mean, this IS what was going on, but he just looked at me like I was an idiot. He responded, "uh. Ok." and walked away!

After about 10 minutes of hair flinging and coat stomping I decided to just put my stuff in the back of car (it would take a while for the spider to make it back up to the front seat from there if he was still in my coat or purse). I drove in fear the whole way home, wondering when and where the fuzzy spider would rear his ugly, spotted head.

It occurred to me on the way home that he probably ran down the steering column. Do you remember when you first started driving and the driver's ed teacher told you to check the road, check your speed, check the rear view mirror then repeat? And it felt as unnatural as it it sounds? I felt that way as I added in the obligatory glace toward the steering column. I decided on the way home that I would get the spider spray from the kitchen and douse the steering column. I wondered if it would ruin anything.

When I pulled up to the driveway, I ran upstairs and changed clothes so I could stomp my work outfit, just in case the spider was in there somewhere.

Outside the next-door neighbors (guys) were moving. No matter, I immediately began dousing all the floorboards in the car as well as the back cargo hatch area. They were eyeballing me so I said, "There's a spider in my car." I got the same sort of look as I did earlier from the mechanic.

I also popped the hood and sprayed the air vents. I then again wondered about spraying the steering column. As I opened the driver's side door that spider brazenly marched out from the depths of the steering column (I kid you not!) I think all the fumes had him running for fresh air. That's when I made my move. Unable to get an angle to squish him, I sprayed him for a solid 10-15 seconds. He was covered in white foam. He then ran back into the steering column! Oh no!!!

Remember this was Wednesday. Church night! So I texted a couple of friends (they're roommates) from church to say "need a ride to church. there's a spider in my car". They thought I was kidding, but I wasn't. Besides not knowing if he was dead or not, there was so much bug spray in that car it could kill an elephant! They were kind enough to give me a ride and not make too much fun of me.

The next morning I rode with the windows down on the way to work in 40 degree weather so I wouldn't gag on the fumes.

I never did see ol' fuzzy again. I hope I never do.

May the Force Be With You

2008-10-27T09:02:00.007-05:00

Pumpkin carving was fun! Check out my Vader pumpkin.

I <3 these things...

2008-10-17T15:59:00.003-05:00

Things for which I am thankful
Not an exhaustive list by any means…

(Not in any particular order either)

God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit
Family
Close friends that truly know you and love you anyway
Friends that call you out on your "baloney"—but not in front of others.
Friends that do not assume that they know you better than you know yourself.
Friends that actually DO know you better than you know yourself.
People that do not act like they know everything about anything.
People that know a whole lot more than I do.
Cool fall weather--I'm so glad you're here!!!!
Hoodies and sweat pants
Kittens
Flowers
Sonic cranberry limeades
Smiles
our government (whether or not we agree with actions individuals in office may or may not take)
our military
friends that try to set you up on blind date
friends that don't get ticked when you're not really comfortable with the idea of a blind date
frogs, toads and turtles
music
sunrises
sunsets
the ocean
friends that are in Louisiana that "knew you when…"
friends in Ada that "remember that time…"
new friends in Texas that always rock my socks off
friends that have moved away but will always be in my top 10
friends that know I love all of them equally…
soft, cool grass (freshly mowed)
the number pi
asymptotes…they blow my mind!
hugs (might be in my top 5)
curiosity
the word "blarg"…thanks Amanda
post-it notes
love
iTissues (hehehe)
water and air
dr pepper...aka Nectar of Life
the color blue (like the darkest part of an afternoon sky)
prayer
two words: ROAD TRIPS!!!!
my awesome ability to do the robot. :-)
mascot suits
ninjas

I love this photo! What memories...

ridiculously large pencils
meeting famous people randomly {cough Don King cough}
my Website Hero mug.

BLARG! yes. I say, BLARG!

2008-10-16T16:17:00.003-05:00

If you're in no mood to read about my frustrations and negative mood, then read no further. :-)
I have actually written about some of these before, but after training faculty and staff for a few days straight, my brain is tired and I feel as though I need to vent.

And tomorrow I plan to post a list of things for which I am thankful, the OCT 2008 edition (for those of you keeping track on myspace).

I have been frustrated lately: work, school (although I did get accepted into grad school! woo-hoo!), missing my family, friends—all of these have been on my mind.

I think if I write some things down, perhaps it will allow me to release them and they won't continue to tick me off today.

1. Why has the soda pop industry created a conspiracy to get me to drink 2.5 servings of pop at one time by packaging it in a 20 oz bottle? Or is this actually a governmental conspiracy to make a serving only 8oz? Curse the Nectar of Life...yes, curse thee Dr. Pepper!

2. Why does everyone have to gripe, groan or otherwise complain when they find out that my favorite baseball team is the Yankees or that my second fave is the Cubs? Yes, I realize they haven't won the Series in 100 years. blah blah blah... I don't complain when your favorite song is "Idiot Boyfriend" by Jimmy Fallon…I like this song, too, but come on…Idiot Boyfriend? Really? That's your FAVORITE? Perhaps it's a sign. :-P

3. Why do girls find it necessary to pretend their IQ is about 20 points less than it is to attract a guy's attention?

4. Why do guys fall for this? Or do guys really prefer girls that provide little or no intellectual stimulation? Do guys really just want a girl that thinks anything they say is "awesome" and "so smart"…"oh, you're talking over my head I don't know." Argh!

5. Why don't more people appreciate the humor of a giant pencil? I think they're great!

6. Why do people find it necessary to not only interrupt but "top" your story? Thank you Saturday Night Live for making a skit out of this…I loved every second of it. Really.

7. Where's my other quarter so I can go get a Dr. Pepper?

8. Where have all of my paper clips gone? I don't use them that often. Can someone send me back some papers with a paper clip on them?

9. Email forwards that claim you'll not find your true love if you don't send it to 23 friends in 2 minutes…or claim that it is being tracked by a large company and your friend of a friend of a friend of a friend did in fact receive a check for 1, 345.88 just last week. argh. Need I say more?

10. I read a question on Yahoo! Answers this morning asking about genetic selection and "discarding" the embryos that do not meet certain qualifications. This not only made me sad but really ticked me off! Are you KIDDING me? If you really just want a blue eyed girl with dark hair, go adopt. They need loving families and you don't have to "discard" any unwanted embryos. This sounds to me like a fancy way of trying to accomplish what Hitler was doing—totally unacceptable!

11. mmmm…why is this Dr. Pepper so good?

12. What's the deal with the number 13? I know comedians have stated this before, but I'm not trying to get a laugh from you, I want to know: who do you think you're fooling, Mr. Big Building Floor-Numberer, by calling the 13th floor the 14th? Know what's sad? Many are ok with this..they don't feel so scared.

13.

14. The question formerly known as 13.

15. I love soft carpet not cold linoleum. Who's with me?!?!?!??!

16. My office is messy. I need to clean it.

17. Why do people have to assume that since I'm younger than they are that I know nothing about the job I was hired to do?

18. Why can't we wear flip flops to work? Or maybe blue fuzzy slippers. It would really make my day better.

19. I think I'm a little obsessive. Upon realizing this was number 19 I fought with the question, "should I make it an even 20? Or 21 since I skipped 13. What about 22 since 15 is the artist formerly known as 14?"

Even though my chest tightens and my palms sweat at this moment as I haven't resolved my issues referenced in 19, I thank you for reading this…not even my Dilbert, Tales from Redesignland or Orlando photo can cheer me at the moment…but…can't….look…away….CURSE YOUR HANDSOME FACE ORLANDO BLOOM!

Hey kids, rock n roll...rock on!

2008-10-09T13:51:00.007-05:00

So, the HighEdWeb Conference was a blast. I met some folks that I've "known" on some social networking sites for a few months. Here are just a few of the pics from our opening reception.

Get a Clue...shift happens

2008-10-07T13:59:00.004-05:00

Gordy Pace, Dir of IT communications Univ of Montana

Reading homework The Cluetrain Manifesto. the premise was that everything would change in the business world w/net. "A powerful global conversation has begun."

The people who look like they know a lot actually have gaps in their knowledge. If have a team, then others can fill in the gaps.

More homework Groundswell. Studies in how people are using technologies.

Consequences:

balance of pwr has shifted
control of pr/marketing has been weakened
your brand is what your customers say it is
your employees are connecting online, building ideas and discussing your policies, etc.

P-people. assess customers' social activities

O-objectives

S-Strategy

T-technology

Too often people jump to the T and just say "we want facebook" rather than looking at what our students are using or want us to use. what are our objectives? then come up with a strategy and then determine what technologies are available.

UPDATE 2:20 PM

more homework naked conversations about blogging

perceptions about blogging may be incorrect.

Aparently text message novels are big in Japan.

Says he started a technology think tank and included a LOT of people. I think there were over 50 depts on that slide!

He's a big proponent of creating a strategic plan.

Having the juxtaposition of a driving force and a restrictive force and understanding those helped in their portal implementation.

He likens web 1.0 to living in the suburbs and web 2.0 to living in the city. :-) but not really the best metaphor but it did open up conversation. b/c some people are scared of the city or just like living in the suburbs.

Keynote--Kyle Ford

2008-10-07T12:45:00.004-05:00

Woo-hoo! He did the Xfiles site. I loved the Xfiles. Now he's at Ning. Yay for ning :-)

What is Social Networking?
A set of online tools that allows for content creation and community building. (his def)

tools of sn
forum, video, photos, music, etc.

Even ebay or amazon are social networks.

AOL, CompuServe, Prodigy in the 90's. Then came along Netscape.
Publishing 2.0 in the early 2000's:
Blogger, TypePad, WordPress able to self-publish

Now...2008:
Facebook, myspace, youtube, linkedin you're joining THEIR world --facebooks world.

Ning gives the people the freedom to create your own social networks for anything. Co-creator of ning was also co-creator of precursor to Netscape. Then he sold Netscape to AOL.

Ning means "peace" in chinese.

He's giving us a quick and dirty on how to create your ning network in one minute.

UPDATE 1:00 PM

Showing us examples of ning sites: NKOTB, 50cent, TI, HighEdWeb, Ask a Ninja

can use social networks for language immersion, video conferencing, social notes.

One class can't take paper notes, must use a wiki=social note taking.

Social networking is a 2 way street.

used to be i think therefore i am
now it's we participate therefore we are

likens social networks to calculators. when it comes along it levels the playing field. it would be silly to not use the tools.

Kyle says we should build better soldiers. They learn to use the tools and process the info.

Webcasting

2008-10-07T10:49:00.005-05:00

Joel Doepker, Dir of pub relations and communications at Ozarks Tech Community College (OTC) Has won 5 Emmys in News Photography and Editing (his voice is like butter. so mezmerizing. can tell he worked in TV)

Key partnerships for success:

college admin
media services (former professionals)
web services/IT
Public Relations

Had the MO gov on campus, so wanted a video of visit in a timely manner for web site. Gov on campus Monday, had the video online by Tues. afternoon. working on processes to do that more quickly. sent the video to gov's office so they had immediate feedback from the college for coming.

College events, student profiles, dept profiles, etc. for videos

The college president does a video to keep campus informed on things.

Presenter does monthly video newsletter.

UPDATE 11:00 AM

Public relations submits story ideas, he records interviews, records the video, write and edit script, then post video to website. relies on media services.

Production time=7 hrs. Editing is the biggest chunk of time.

Benefits for college beyond the web site for video:

recruitment
community relations
gov't relations
internal communications
media relations

Local tv stations are glad OTC is providing them video content. Sent video with the press release. Was able to provide the tv station with interviews and video footage and was on the 5:00 news b/c the station was too busy to come out.

News organizations are desperate for content for tv AND web sites.

UPDATE 11:10 AM

They make sure they use tech and & equipment for broadcast standard, not just cheap stuff.

Lessons learned:

work closely with IT b/c video was WAY too big
student background
communicate your vision

We can learn from his mistakes. Had a student in video that was on academic probation so not the best representative in a video. Was most popular kid at college, not best rep for "poster child".

Just debuted a foundation video to raise $. (but he says it's 8 mins...I think that may be too long. hmmm...)

Note to self: could be a possiblity for our marketing consultant to work on these.

Wants to integrate more students b/c students want to hear from students. and not all students are 18 or 19 years old.

Q: what resolution are you using? it seems pretty crisp and high detail for online.
A: He's showing us a direct file, not the shrunked file off of their website. it's 3x4 on web, 16x9 here.

Q: do you stick with windows media?
A: yes. we'd like to do something different, but we're working on it.

Q: noticed in your workflow you had transcript. do you provide that?
A: i saw what you did yesterday, so yeah, i want to have the transcription for our videos. and flash applications for it.

Q: Can you do the voiceovers for our videos? (laughter from whole audience...see, told you those following on twitter, voice is mezmerizing)
A: talk to me after. LOL.

Hmm, discussing the video releases and public domain and "gentleman's agreement".

Analytics with Kyle James

2008-10-07T09:28:00.008-05:00

Kyle directs us to his blog doteduguru.com says all this info is on his blog.

Says we are important. We could put a redirect to a porn site from the homepage and have more of an impact than any speech the campus pres could give. LOL

Getting students to our school is #1. Other things we have to determine what's important for our site like RSS feeds, video, etc. Must define those before look at any data/analytics.

Terms:
visits, unique visits, etc.

Misunderstood terms:
pageviews--what's good? 3 or 5? pageviews are irrelevant.
time on site--there's no way to know how long anyone was on the last page. the avg time on site doesn't acct for last page
bounce rate--bounce means they come then leave.
exit--they come to site and visit other pages then leave. leaving to subdomain would register as a bounce.
traffic types--direct (bookmarks too), search
benchmarking--Alexa, compete, quantcast are free services
edurank.nucloud.com--Kyle and friends are doing this, is in "alpha-beta" version. :-) says to check it out and let him know of any bugs you find.

UPDATE 9:56 AM

10/90 rule--10% of budget on tools and 90% on people.

Many use google analytics in this session. Can track more than one domain in google analytics.

Sitescan and WASP are recommended by Kyle.

Data overload!!
must segment and filter. Can set up to 100 profiles within google analytics by city or dept.
set up site search within GA.

set up a sandbox profile and a raw data one so can get all raw data.

standardize your data: capitalization, www --to use or not to use. make sure so set up for both.

able to filter subdomains, and exclude IP filter.

UPDATE 10:10 AM

can filter by country, region, city. says the order of filters are important, so will have to play with that to get it right.

full referral URL filter is available

destination URL tagging is important and easy to set up. Great for campaigns. can send to short URL then redirect to landing page so can track the short URL to see how campaign is faring.

Can track links to docs such as a PDF viewbook, or videos, flash. He thinks this report is still a little buggy, but worth paying attention to.

Can tag audience segments and is great for email marketing campaigns. Says he hasn't used this one, but if anyone has he'd like to hear about it.

Site Search Report can help you to see where the search was started and how many times they had to redfine that search can help you know what is difficult to find on your site. These things may need to be made more apparent.

Also helps with terminology: residence halls vs campus dorms. Can see what users are calling things. Can tell if they got frustrated and bounced after trying to search.

Can tell what search engine used outside and what keywords or pages are brining in lots of traffic.

UPDATE 10:15 PM

page titles are important for SEO. referring sites report is helpful.the 404 error page report is great. can add some code to those page.

"It's all about your user, guys."

Can track more than our site. Facebook or even offline campaigns. When send out URLs on offline ads, can track what is effective and track which URLs are being used.

Tracking blogs: Feedburner and ShareThis
Can monitor social media to see what's being used: facebook for college kids but myspace seems for those that don't go--his experience anyway.

Always test.
Don't get caught up in numbers, look at the trends.
Set up a reporting schedule and track key metrics.
Set up goals.

UPDATE 10:25 AM

Q: How to help marketing people understand the data in the reports?
A: Audience member: we provide a custom report that makes sense to them. Kyle: can have a report scheduled to send to particular people on specific dates

Q: how to get tracking code?
A: Kyle: adds it himself. Can drop the code into the template near the footer tag

Avatars...

2008-10-07T08:31:00.005-05:00

Monica spent a year away from her husband, and was a fan of Star Wars Galaxies. Was able to have a virtual reality with each other while away at university. Had a "house" in the game.

Term avatar comes from Hindu mythology where it describes a god decending into a human being and taking it over.

Second life is one place in the "metaverse". Games such as World of Warcraft are part of the metaverse as well as social places like second life.

UPDATE 8:40 PM

Identity exploration is good for learning. When we're allowed to create our own identity, we are able to embody that identity. She says when we think about something it can be like actually doing it.

She's showing a video of roller coaster from a first person perspective. Says that if we watch it, we might have the experience of embodiment...like we were riding the roller coaster.

Research done with babies. Motor awareness of crawling vs walking and how babies learn. They had to experience falling before aware of an apparent gap (with plexiglass over it) before became wary of the gap. Had to relearn the awareness of the gap when began walking. Walking and crawling were two different embodiement experiences.

Watching a video about a science school in second life. Able to animate a cell or organ and can "travel" inside it.

UPDATE 8:47 PM

Oregon Community Colleges (17 cc) have an island in Second Life, funded in part by the state.
Says it takes a lot of coordination. "The Starfish and the Spider" is a book she recommends.

Says there is a big negative that the line between adult content is easily crossed, but you are able to filter out PG only content as well as education only content in SL.

I don't know if it's me or what, but this doesn't seem cohesive...

Says you can get an acct for free. Talking about economy in SL and buying a really nice house for cheap in SL. SL money (Linden) can be traded for US dollars.

There is a ning group RezEd for more info.

Q: Any one academic area that want to participate?
A: no, it's all over the board. many academic areas

Q: using as a community space or building models?
A: it's what they want to do/use.

Q: what's been the cost to use it?
A: to get an island and sustain it was about $7K and $3K to keep going. but also have to have personnel so asked for $50K from the state for her consulting services, etc. Cost to students is free.

Small Change in plans

2008-10-06T15:22:00.001-05:00

Slight medical emergency. :-(

Will resume liveblogging my conference sessions Tuesday morning.

Web Managers Roundtable Discussion

2008-10-06T14:03:00.008-05:00

I'm not sure how well I'll be able to keep up with all Q & A during this session, but will do my best. :-)

Right now just some introductions.

UPDATE 2:12 PM

Panel still introducing selves. might be taking up too much time. :-(

UPDATE 2:18 PM

Ok. now we're getting to Qs.

Q: who manages web policies at your school?
A: Bob: meetings, arguments about policies and web links. They "slog through it". They view the web as community property so they argue about links etc.
A: Rachel: independent authors so it's hodge-podge
A: Luke: they use their mission and fact that are a christian school, they use those as guidelines. seems to be a self-policing situation...don't use "hammer" approach. don't squash all that comes along.
A: Sri: marketing team sets the style and what goes on public web site. They are having the portal vs web site debate.
A: Doug: "our policies stink" {LOL} They don't have anyone to turn to in order to write policies or anyone driving the effort on their campus.
A: moderator: policies control what people can do and what's acceptable. style guide is a little different.

Q: how are you addressing social media?
A: Doug: they built their own social network for accepted students. only for admissions and recruitment strategies. nothing for current students.
A: Luke: no written policy as to how to use for admissions, but in PR he's picked up a twitter acct and a flikr account. They're hands off...more grass-roots. He did get a uni page for them on facebook. They're holding b/c if they get all these networks, who will manage it? They're getting mixed reviews: students=stay away from facebook; alumni=yeah, this is pretty good.
A: Bob: they're looking into some open source platforms to build several social networks from student to almnus.

Q: pros and cons of adopting google apps
A: Bob:
A: rachel: using google analytics at uni of iowa. that's all for now
A: Luke: some students in pilot program using gmail.
A: Sri: no longer using lotus notes and one option was google and gmail, but they chose microsoft in the end.
A: moderator: had some switch, but having probs with gmail switch for students. they're not getting all emails.

Q: are any of the panel involved in e-communication--newsletters for example.
A: Doug: his office creates templates for e-newsletters and emails for alumni office, admissions,etc. all use template created by web services office. His office sends out a quarterly e-newsletter.
A: Luke: they run a listerv and have several newsletters on campus. they send plain text emails with link to newsletters
A: Rachel: they use constant contact for newsletters. some set newsletters and some adhoc, such as homecoming.
A: Bob: fac/staff newspaper was redesigned in WordPress.

Q: use of video? what are the demands from depts? do you have the infrastructure?
A: Bob: they had a $10 million donation from a microsoft principle that should help with quality video and pushing it out.
A: Luke: youtube, google video that school pushes out, some are produced by students, but how can it be used? lots on facebook and all that but do you want others to see it? some have great content, but poor quality b/c are put out by students or are in bad file format for web. They're working on 2 minute videos.

Now discussing iTunesU. Bob says his overall data transfer went up 4x after being on iTunesU. Doug says on ning they have a place for students to upload own video. Is very popular on campus. Was done cheaply and low quality, but those were some of the best ones. Alumni liked b/c saw what students are doing on campus.

UPDATE 2:40 PM

Q: what is your web team structure? how do you handle rogue depts?
A: Bob: need more people, but those with the money need to be on board. rogue depts? he non-chalantly says he'll have to let the higher ups know about their "rogue-ness". New Q: do you have students work on the web? Bob says they try to use students for web 2.0 things, not so much for web developement.
A: Karen: have about a dozen people that contribute. used to be 70% communication 30% IT, now it's mostly IT b/c of budgeting, but she works with communication. They've hired a student that can use Dreamweaver. "we won't use contribute anymore."
A: Luke: They report to advancement office. has a coworker with a journalism background. need more developers, hoping for new position in web services. Does have a student worker. Says that students have a lot to bring.
A: Sri: they just went under a re-org. says content collaboration has taken a hit. they're working to address it. They do have student workers, even a programmer student worker.
A: Doug: reports to the CIO. grown from 2 to 10 people in the web office. the marketing people on their campus are trying to get them in their office.
A: moderator: Doug has done a good job of getting more dollars and more positions in the office. He makes a good business case for it and then delivers when he gets more resources. Doug: you have to make the case afterward as well.
moderator: Don't think about students as programmers. Content is king. Says can find good student writers.

Keynote--Jeffrey Veen

2008-10-06T12:40:00.009-05:00

Man, this guy's resume is impressive!

Said the #heweb08 on twitter was hottest thing going on twitter this morning. WOOT!!!

Correlating web to the intricate choreography of the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics this year.
Giving a humorous bit of history starting in 1974 with watergate, gas price spike, and now discussing musical shifts, etc. Broke up the monopoly of telecommunications. Used the word internet for the first time in 1974 in a white paper. PONG! Tells of first time he saw a "tv with a glass top that he could control". With games came the ability to participate and create. Showing nice pics of old games/computer parts. :-)

IBM released first hard drive. It's about the size of a kitchen counter and cabinets. In today's dollars it cost about $100,000 per GB. now with Google can get storage for $0.15 per GB.

Every minute of the day at YouTube 13 HOURS of video are uploaded. {gasps}

UPDATE 1:05 PM

Showing how using some design and usability guidelines, can make a table of data more useable. "Fine line between information and decoration." You can lose the meaning if over-decorate the data. Spent 15 months at Google to work on google analytics on the dashboard.

Wow...looked at stuff from 1854 for design ideas:

Cholera outbreak. 1 of 3 people had it and died. Dr. John Snow, one of first anastheisiologists. Mapped the cholera deaths in neighborhood of SoHo. convinced city council for London that the outbreak was being spread by water, not air. He took a drawing from a sewer engineer and edited it for his use. He used visualization to help prove imperical fact.
Charles Joseph Minard had a chart of Napoleon's march. The graph shows 6 different variables. He wanted to create a graph so people wouldn't have to think in order to understand the data and see the patterns.
Harry Beck worked for London underground. He drew a map of it in 1930's. he was an engineer so used that knowledge to create a very useful map. Users of the underground only care about where does it stop and what side of the river am I on?
Jeff was watching Indiana Jones and got some inspiration for a chart on GA. Had a dream that Indiana flew his plane over the data. LOL
Thought of ways to gain perspective. ex: 2 billion pennies. how to visualize that many pennies? Using images to gain perspective can help. Megapenny.com
Chris Jordon, artist. uses small images on a large scale to create impact. chrisjordon.com. Point here is to find the story in the numbers and portray that on the web in a visual way.

UPDATE 1:20 PM

Talking about how designers for paper had a change in perspective when had to design for web b/c had to give up control. Control of size page, typography, had to be flexible. One of these designers started csszengarden.com

Realizing we can give up control of design. We can find the story in the data and help it with visualization, but giving the control to users so they can extrapolate what they want, to find their own stories in the data is powerful.

UPDATE 1:30 PM

Wow, he's such a dynamic speaker. Very engaging, knowledgeable and very timely.

Seems like he's saying that on the web we have control in that we create ways to allow the users to control their own data and create their own story or glean what they need/want from a system.

They provided filters to enable clarity. Ex: gapminder. This seems amazing. Note to self, I need to check this out.

New York Times has a casualties of War timeline that has just continued to run.

We need to not only tell stories, but allow discovery. Provide interactivity and allow filtering, not just our providing editing. Web 2.0 is collaborative, collective knowledge.

Teens have a different idea of private vs public.

Veen's fave example of meeting users' needs: us dept of ag: need hay or have hay? LOL

key pts: know yourself and understand the user.

http://veen.com/heweb08.pdf

E-cards

2008-10-06T10:45:00.006-05:00

Assist. Dir of Admissions and manager of Web Design & Support are the presenters.

Giving us the stats about Southeast MO State Univ.

E-cards. Really? :-) His words, not mine. haha

quality and detail can promote your brand: mediocre idea executed excellently better than great idea poorly exectuted.

Southeast offers publicly avialable designs for holidays, university occasions (move-in, commencemnt) and activities. This seems easy to make them cool with the use of their mascot. We don't have a mascot at TCC, so would take some brainstorming to get ideas to make them great.

Q from audience: Are these for marketing dept to send out or just for public use to send to each other?
A: we offer both. we'll get to the ones sent to prospective students later.

UPDATE 10:59 AM

If you offer the public versions, have to make sure people know they're available. They use their website landing pages to market the postcards.

Admissions E-cards:

personalized greeting cardes from each of the counselors
use cards to inform students of upcoming events: visits to high school by college counselor, freshman orientation, high school guidance counselor training
"feel good" like h.s. graduation to those that have accepted southeast as their college of choice

UPDATE 11:06 AM

They use professional photographer for Ecards b/c want quality images. They also use their own staff in the photos so students recoginze the staff when get the Ecard as those they've seen at their h.s. or orientation or a campus tour.

The admissions counselors get feedback from the ecards via email since the ecards are sent by the counselors to each student.

Greencard Pro is what they use. Form fields then cards are automatically generated to web pages with persistent URLs. They can separate cards by categories. E-mails are plain text and contain link to image.

Will allow HTML formatting. Can imbed jpg, png, gif flash

Q from audience: isn't imbebedding flash a problem for IE?
A: again, the emails are text only with a link. The link takes them to their persistent URL for the actual card. Exception to this is one dept at their school that "steals" the artwork and sends emails with imbedded jpgs, but that is just that one dept.

UPDATE 11:17 AM

Q: Can you track click-thrus?
A: No, we do get a notice if it's been opened, but that doesn't tell us about click-thrus

Q: Students don't use email that much, so have you looked at using the cards in Facebook?
A: Ecard software not the important part, the point is the personal touch, so you can set this up in Facebook, too. He's not trying to sell Greetingcard Pro, just the idea of sending personal "cards" to your prospective students.

Q: If you don't have click-thru data, how do you justify the time resource if you don't know how many are using them?
A: It only takes an hour or two to design, so it's worth it to them if even have 5 students view it. From the admissions standpoint, they focus on personal communication. They used to send hand written cards, birthday cards, notes so this is more cost effective and they're able to continue the personal communication.

Q: Asking Qs about the actual software but he inherited it, so not sure of costs, etc.

Q: Other than for admissions, how has it been used; alumni, foundation, etc.
A: Those depts are the ones that "steal" the artwork and send them out on their own. Fac/staff use the public ones.

Q: Are the ecards sent one by one?
A: Birthday, yes. admissions counselors used to do those by hand anyway, but can include multiple email adresses if want, but then the email will be generic such as "Future Red Hawk".

UPDATE 11:25 AM

A particpants' school--Univ of New Mexico--does virtual gifts (burgers, bobble-heads, etc). Most popular item was an aggies' voodoo doll (their big rivals).

Social Networking - The Game Changer

2008-10-06T08:21:00.010-05:00

I'm curious to see where this one is headed since the presenter is from a vendor: OmniUpdate. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt though, they gave us some sweet mugs. :-) Not to mention that one of their guys said he likes my blog last night...yep, I'm famous. hahaha.

Ok, I'll start adding updates once we being, but on a side note, I hate that I'm missing LOL cats with santa, I mean Tony Dunn. ;-)

UPDATE 8:30 AM

Lance Merker of OmniUpdate tells us he's not here as a vendor. :-) He read my mind. hahaa

Social networking born around a campfire with the cavemen. Taking us thru a brief history of technology, starting with the wheel, maritime innovations, shipping, trains, planes, automobiles. and then the telegraph, phone, tv...communications innovations. broke loose with the digital age.

UPDATE 8:38 AM

Three killer apps on the net:

1. email
2. web
3. social networks

With social networks, the game has changed. Social networking to only get bigger. How did the students/prosp. students get so involved w/social networking? How'd we get here?

UPDATE 8:48 AM

Going thru a sample student: Ami. Born after net was invented, grew up with it, had a cell phone at middle school. Had own pc/laptop before high school. Best texter ever. haha. Can do under her desk. Has over 400 facebook friends. To her it's nothing new. It's just something she uses.

Giving us bits of the Pew: Teens & Social Media study.

those that use social media, 91% to communicate w/friends
49% to make new friends

email is still a killer app, but how has its use changed? death reports of email are greatly exaggerated. only 14% teens use email daily IF using a social network.

social networks are the new killer app.
not just web-based (twitter, iphone, loopt)
both private and public
replace email
replace chat
replace blogs
replace photo & video sharing

UPDATE 8:54 AM

Discussing public vs private social networks. Facebook: institutions have "pages" and "fans" not friends.
Can have rss feeds for your institution page on facebook.

Ning is getting huge for private social networks (highedweb2008.ning.com). Showing us some private ning sites for colleges. **note to self: free if has google ads. 20 bucks a year to take ads off.

UPDATE 8:59 AM

How can we have our students engage with our students? Old ways of advertising aren't sufficient: print, radio, tv, mailings, web...

What can we do right now?

assign responsibility: someone HAS to do it--marketing and managing it
participate.
connect everything. Lance says he'll show us how to do that...

UPDATE 9:03 AM

Magic of RSS feed. Use it to publish to facebook, homepage, blog, media, portals, sms text

Doing a demo, then says will have Q & A.

Using fake school Gallena University to create a facebook and ning page.

UPDATE 9:10 AM

Hmm...I have to say, no real "aha!" moments here. I think we understand everything he's told us so far. I guess I would have preferred more data, something to use as ammo when talking to admins/faculty about social networking, its importance and how we can get buy-in to have a central management for it. Don't get me wrong, he seems to be a champion for all of the above, but he's preaching to the choir. :-) We need to know how to convey this message to our admins and they respond to numbers.

He's setting up a Ning acct right now and tying all his sites together with rss.

HighEdWeb Conference Liveblogging

2008-10-06T08:20:00.001-05:00

Gonna go ahead and do this...if anything it will serve as my notes. :-)

Blogification

2008-10-05T14:01:00.003-05:00

Well, I haven't blogged in month. :-P Just had too many other things going on, but now's the perfect time to get back to it: HighEdWeb conference is under way!

So far, it's been a bit of an experience. My friend and coworker is here, too but has had a bit of medical difficulties. She scratched her eye {winces}. I felt so badly for her yesterday. She could barely open it...all red and watery. We ate dinner in the hotel lounge (actually pretty good chicken sandwich). She then went to bed early and I met up with my old college roomie, Ang. She's in grad school here (what luck!)

So this morning I went with Ang to church and while I was away Cacy first texted me to go find and buy an eye patch. The next text read, "I'm gone to the urgent care clinic" :-O

So after we tracked her down this morning, we found a renewed Cacy: the doc numbed her apparently scratched cornea and gave her a 'script for some eye antibiotics.

Now that Cacy is feeling better and Ang has homework to do, we're ready to conquer the conference. :-)

I'll post from the conference, but since my readership aren't "in the biz", I'll post the OTHER side of the conference. I hear that Michael Fienen is going to live blog over at SuperSatellite for anyone interested in actual conference-topic blogging.

Hurricane Gustav

2008-09-04T10:38:00.001-05:00

I wanted to give an update on my family for those interested.

First, as of Tuesday at 11:30 a.m., my parents and sister are ok. I heard from my mom on Monday night, but didn't hear from my dad until Tuesday. He's been busy working on the clean-up. He does tree work and has been working until 2 or 3 a.m. getting trees off power lines.

Now, I shall get on my soapbox. Stop reading if you don't wanna hear it. hahahaha.

When hurricane Katrina hit and people were stranded in the flood the entire country was in an uproar. I won't rehash that storm, but just wanted to remind us all of how mad we were after Katrina hit.

When Gustav was passing over Cuba, the gulf coast took notice and took action. The largest evacuation in the history of Louisiana took place. Not only did they get 2 million people out, they had a plan! It was done in an orderly fashion. The cooperation of several states made this possible. State and LOCAL governments from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama (more..??) all coordinated to get buses, trains and planes ready to evacuate those who could not otherwise leave due to illness, incapacity or lack of transportation or money.

No money for the gas to leave? That's ok, meet at these designated points and a bus will get you. Not only will it get you, we will drive you to safety. You, your children and your PETS. Yes, pets. Then we will feed you. House you. Engage you in games, provide television, etc.

When Gustav was out over Cuba, it looked to be a monster storm. Ok. Let's be honest, ANY hurricane is a monster storm. But this one was shaping up to be really bad. So everyone took action. In the New Orleans area 90% of the people heeded the mandatory evacuation. WOW! That's a large undertaking.

While watching the coverage from my safe home in north Texas, I was nervous: was my family ok? What about friends in Louisiana? In the midst of my fear was anger. Anger at the news reporters that almost acted disappointed that more doom and destruction didn't occur...and these were the reporters in New Orleans. The ones near Cocodrie, Houma, Morgan City, Baton Rouge didn't quite feel the same.

As great as our technology is, we cannot always predict every nuance of a hurricane or tornado or earthquake. Gustav gave a few surprises by moving a little west. The winds also died down a bit. Made landfall as a category 2. {Oh, no! You said it would be a 3 or 4. Did you cry wolf?}

NO! Guess what? When Katrina made landfall, the max sustained winds were approximately 120 mph. Gustav made landfall with max sustained winds of about 115 mph. Those few mph difference were the difference between a cat 3 and a cat 2...but what does this mean? {Oh, Gustav was only a cat 2. You evacuated us for nothing...} Let's be clear. A lot of damage was done in this storm. The major damage wasn't in New Orleans, but people lost homes! No electricity! I can't even call my parents! No landlines, no power to the cell towers! NOTHING! No email! I have to cling to the 4 or 5 minutes I talked to my dad on Tuesday!

ARGH! I'm guessing that if an evacuation hadn't taken place and people lost lives from falling trees or flying debris we would be saying the authorities didn't do their jobs once AGAIN. And how bad this storm was. But now, everyone is out and SAFE and yet we're questioning whether the authorities cried "wolf". So infuriating. The people were safe. Isn't that what we demanded from Nagin? Bush? FEMA? Governor Blanco and now Jindal????

While I'm on the topic, let me address some of the things that I saw happening here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I saw a large metropolitan area come together to assist our fellow human beings from the gulf coast. Bus after bus and car after car arrived to north Texas to find all of our digital signage on the highways directing them to either an intake/staging center in Mesquite or if they made it all the way to Fort Worth, the signage directed them to the appropriate shelters.

The staging area in Mesquite was at a football stadium. Red Cross and city officials were there early Saturday morning. This wasn't the beginning of the preparation though. Three years of planning led to the orchestration of thousands of evacuees finding shelter and food here in north Texas.

Some had been on buses or cars for 24 hours...making stops along the way. When they arrived in Mesquite they found medical care for EVERYONE, water for EVERYONE, restrooms for EVERYONE. Then the buses would take them directly to a shelter. No guesswork. Will the shelter be full? Where will we stay? None of that! Orchestrated like a grand symphony.

I will say most of the gulf coast guests were thankful. Tired, scared, but thankful. There were a relative handful though that complained! Complained that the food "tasted like prison food" and that after a while the restrooms were dirty. WHAT!?!?!?

Hmmmm...I think "prison" food is better than NO food. I also think staying at the Dallas Convention Center was EXPONENTIALLY better than what went down at the Superdome in 2005.

I cannot begin to explain how unbelievably frustrated I am. As a nation we demanded Louisiana and the Feds do a better job. They did, and now we complain. How ungrateful!

I have never been more proud to have been from Louisiana as this weekend, to see everyone work together and for all of the planning to work. I have never been more proud to now be a part of the DFW community, to see so many reach out to those in need.

I have also never been more ashamed to come from the same state as those that were complaining about how tasty a meal was or wasn't at the Dallas Convention Center.

By the way, while those at the Dallas Convention Center were eating prison food and using a dirty bathroom, my dad stayed behind, working in the storm to remove trees from your homes and the roads so you could return. He is now working 20 hours a day to remove trees from power lines so you can have the hope of getting electricity in the next month. All while eating cold canned food. I think he'd give 20 bucks for a hot prison meal right now.