Mortie, Mortie: He's no shorty, Mortie.
Finally, a break from the offshoring trend. Washtech reports that Washington and some other states may pass laws to ban offshoring, although this ban would apply only to state agencies. Still, it’s a start.
Fun at the Green MBA barn with a fellow student — a wacky night in Santa Rosa:
Thank you so much to my fellow students in the Green MBA program for a kickass night of karaoke at San Francisco’s favorite karaoke bar, The Mint. Pictures soon as soon as I get them from the camera person.
Hey, this is neat. An Olympia man returned to his apartment to find it completely foiled… in aluminum foil.
LOVE! Over 9,000 Chileans broke the world record for the largest simultaneous kiss. Yum.
While watching Six Feet Under last week, one of the actors in the credits was named Jim Ortlieb – I remember that my dad met this guy several years ago in Chicago, so it was really weird to see his name in the credits. The character he plays (a manager) gets shot by a recently-fired disgruntled employee. He has a scene in the morgue where he sits up on the table and talks to also-deceased killer, who had committed suicide at the scene.
2003 Chicago Cubs:
NL Central Divison Champions
Hooah!
I’m in the midst of a week of deconstructing and later reconstructing myself on paper, figuring out my higher purposes with regards to my personal, professional, and community life. A bit of the granola end of the Green MBA program at New College.
Ah, my first weekend of graduate school. Set in a picturesque Waldorf school outside of Santa Rosa, the studying begins. There’s always time for karaoke, however. A nice surprise to find that the Richmond bridge, about 20 minutes north of where I live, sort of looks like when you cross the bridge from Bainbridge Island onto the Olympic Peninsula. With the partly cloudy skies this weekend, I briefly felt like I was in Seattle. A nice fix, but I’d welcome anyone sending a 1/2 pound of Vivace Espresso.
On August 30th, I graduated with a BA in Humanities, with an emphasis in Public Interest Communications. After eight schools and twelve years, I finally have something to show that I’ve finished. Whew.
Mortie, class of 2003, with a BA in Humanities, emphasis in Public Interest Communications, from the New College of California. They still can’t make a cap big enough for my cranium.
This movie writes itself: Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis star as Elvis and JFK, respectively, in BUBBAHO-TEP.
Yesterday I took a tour of San Francisco with the Tartu Academic Men’s Choir from Tartu, Estonia. The tour was not conducted in English — it’s positively the best way to see San Francisco.
In one week, I’ll be wearing a cap and gown, for my official graduation from New College with a BA in Humanities.
Najuma made a presentation on Corporate Social Responsibility. I think her and I have different approaches towards the same goal. Perhaps they can supplement each other – who knows? I’m beginning to see the tremendous potential of what I can accomplish.We left early today from class, because the guest instructor had appendicitis (!). Sanjai brought lunch for all of us, and we played a CD Robin made for our cohort. Galen and Sanjai made plans for this coming Saturday, and I just purchased a ticket (from Portland, since I’ll be there the night before) and stay through Monday. I really should just move down here now – this can get expensive. Thank God for frequent flyer miles. They help, if only a little bit.
“So, I was in San Francisco, and I was lost and everytime I asked for directions, people didn’t know where the street was, or they gave me wrong directions. And then a police car pulls over next to me and asks me if I was lost, and I said ‘yes’, and he said where do you need to go, and when I told him, he said that it was too far to walk, and he said he could give me a lift in the squad car.
As we’re riding in the squad car, he says he has to make a stop, and it turns out he’s picking up some trading cards at another precinct. They’re cop trading cards, and all the cops collect them. He goes inside the police station, but before he goes in, he asks me to hold his gun. I was really uncomfortable with that, but I did it anyway. Such a friendly city.”
Overheard
Today was the big day. It’s all about thesis presentations in class. Marshall talked about transitional life programs for parolees – that must be inspiring work. Joe Lucas wowed us with a vibrant reading of an excerpt of his life – it was well acted and well, I had no idea about his past and his addictions. He’s come a long way. I wouldn’t have recognized him then, I suppose. Gerald talked about ‘The Pocket Anger Manager” and the cycles of depression and anger that perpetuate themselves. He has inside his head a vast storehouse of inspirational knowledge. I’m happy to know him, and now that he has a working email address, able to talk to him in the future.Man, I was nervous. I’m not usually nervous in front of a crowd, but then I’m only singing most of the time. I think because it’s a cohort of people I know really well, I know I wouldn’t be able to bullshit any of them. I kept thinking about anything that could go wrong – the Powerbook getting water all over it, the connection to the TV not working, fumbling around, boring people.
It went off without a hitch. At one point I must have been getting Someone’s attention, because thunder rumbled as I was playing a clip from the “What Would Jesus Drive?” campaign. I think people were initially turned off by the politically incorrect nature of the ads, but I needed only to remind them that they weren’t the target demographic – that I was working outside the left’s bubble to accomplish this. I took 40 of the 45 minutes, with 5 minutes for questions – so much for not filling up the time available.
One more day of a weekend class, until this fall. One more paper to turn in. I’m going to miss my cohort.
My thesis presentation is ready. A great cloud has lifted. Only a couple of minor website designs and a scientific reasoning paper remain. Hooah!I celebrated with Kimmay and his ex-girlfriend Jennifer, and tonight at Molly Maguire’s, we played “Bonzai Karaoke”. That means that Jennifer made all of the requests, and Kimmay and I had no idea what she would request for us. They just had to be songs that weren’t obscure, and songs we had never sung before, so as a result, I got to sing “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel, “Baby, Don’t Get Hooked on Me” by Mac Davis, and “Father Figure” by George Michael. Kimmay and I did an “All in the Family” duet – I got to be Edith this time.