The students are revolting!
Yesterday, students at the college (as well as an unknown number of quasi-professional agitators) gathered on the quad on the east campus to loudly and visibly make known their displeasure at the proposed budget reductions.
I took some photos.
After spending some time speechifying on the quad, the students laid siege to the Morris Building.
Security had to stand guard to prevent the protestors from swarming into the building.
Finally, they took to the streets of downtown Modesto.
Good times at Modesto Junior College!
He’s not strange. He just wants to live his life this way.
It’s been a few days, so I wanted to give you some of my thoughts/reactions/reflections about the Archbishop Tutu event.
Today, I will talk about the structure and flow of the event itself.
The event began a few minutes late and I suppose they must have been having some problems backstage because there were awfully long pauses between the different parts of the program.
First on the bill was President Loewenstein to welcome and introduce the evening. He made a couple of humorous remarks about the tension and issues that we’ve been experiencing over the past week or two. I thought he handled it well.
Next was a dance performed by members of the MJC Off-Balance Dancers. Ok. I am the first to admit that I don’t get dance. I certainly didn’t get this one. I don’t think I’m the most cultured guy in the world, but neither am I a Visigoth. Rather than go on and on about the dance, I’ll just say that it came across at pretty pointless. Was it supposed to be telling a story? Conveying an emotion? Making me squirm and look at my watch? Well, it only did one of those things.
Then we had a set of songs performed by the MJC Chamber Singers. They sounded good, but I couldn’t understand the words they were singing. And they knew that the words were unintelligible because they made a point of reading the texts of the songs after they sang them. So, pretty harmonies but boring performance. Hey, I was a music major. I sang in Chamber Choir. It was BORING. It’s much more fun to sing in 4 or 8 parts than it is to listen to it. Yeah, there are people who love listening to choral music. I’m not one of them. For me, this was more pointless filler before we got to the good stuff.
Finally, we arrive at something that was interesting. MJC professor of English and slam poet, Sam Pierstorff, had composed a poem for the occasion. I always enjoy Sam’s poems and especially his delivery when he performs them. He prefaced his poem by making a simile. Ubuntu, a person is a person through other persons, was like the Kevin Bacon connection. It was analogous to the way that an actor is an actor due to his relationship to Kevin Bacon. His specific example: Elvis Presley was in Change of Habit with Ed Asner, who was in JFK with Kevin Bacon. Therefore, Elvis has a Bacon number of 2. Sam went on to say that in 2009, Kevin Bacon emceed an event at which Desmond Tutu was the keynote speaker. Therefore, the Archbishop has a Bacon number of 1 and because we were all in the room with him tonight, we could claim a Bacon number of 2! Haha! Very amusing! (Although I would quibble with the conclusion. I would say that those who appeared on stage can make the claim, not those of us in the audience. But it was all in jest anyway.) Then Sam performed his poem. I would reprint the text, but it’s so much better to see/hear him perform it. So I won’t.
The next thing that was supposed to happen was a video tribute to the MJC Television/Film department Archbishop Tutu. But instead, the man himself came out on stage. He spoke for 45 minutes or so; I really wasn’t paying attention to the time. He had a nice delivery, somewhat slow paced, and was frequently amusing. He used a lot of biblical references and talked a lot about God. The last 10% 5% of his speech was about the evils of defense spending, about how global warming is a fact (a FACT, mind you), and fossil fuels are bad. Well, I feel that with these points, he strayed off message a bit. But I’m certain many others will disagree.
After the Archbishop was done speaking, President Loewenstein came back to thank everyone for attending. But before he got to the podium, the video started! Oops!
Part II tomorrow.
People Are People so Let us live and strive for freedom in South Africa our land
Went to see/hear Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak on Ubuntu tonight at the college.
Sadly, I learned nothing about a Linux OS.
Anglo-files
When I was in seventh grade, a girl and her family moved to Modesto. Her father worked for Shell Development, as did the father of my buddy, David. If I remember the origin story correctly, David attended a company picnic and there became aware of this girl, Carolyn Grayson. Carolyn and her family were from England. Now to this point, I’d never met someone from England (or anywhere in Europe) and foreign countries seemed so exotic. Also, it was a time when my friends and I were fully into James Bond and spy stuff. So it amused me to joke and pretend that Carolyn was a spy from the UK that was undercover a grade ahead of me at school. I don’t think I ever actually spoke to her, but we (I) had a grand time running all over school and the local neighborhood pretending to spy on her and also avoid her being able to spy on me. Look, it all made sense when I was 13.
I think her family moved away after that year. Or maybe the next. Either way, when I went into eighth grade, she went to a different school and I never saw her again. Here’s the incredibly dorky and embarrassing (and possibly alarming and worrying part). For some time thereafter, to continue my little espionage fantasy game, I would wave at passing aircraft as if it were Carolyn (or one of her agents) in the plane doing a fly over reconnaissance. God! how lame I was (and still am I suppose)!
I think this is the house where she lived while in Modesto.
The college-wide Planning & Budget Committee meeting was this morning. It was for staff and students to give testimony about their reaction to the proposed cuts for next year. For the most part, I was VERY impressed with the speeches that were given. One after another, people spoke for up to three minutes, offering evidence and arguments about why this or that program or position should be spared. It certainly gave me a lot to think about. I really appreciated the civil tone of most of the people.
Until this one student, speaking in a British accent (that I’m not entirely convinced was real) took his turn and really was pretty rude. He was even admonished by the co-chair of the committee to keep things civil. Well, his attitude was a real turn off. Honestly, it caused me to stop listening, both to him and to everyone who followed him.
I ask the question: Do we think that such incivility (tempting though it may be) helps or hurts the causes for which we fight?
There can be only one!
My office is in the process of trying to determine what the best burger in Modesto is. We’re conducting this investigation using a tournament bracket model. Using a highly unscientific selection process, we started with twelve burgers that would be in contention for the title of Modesto’s Best Burger. Every other week, during our office staff meeting, we would sample three burgers and rate each of them in the following categories: taste, value, burger construction/ingredients, and how well the burger appeals to the other senses. Of the three burgers, one advances.
We’ve completed two preliminary rounds so far with two more to go. Once the field has been narrowed to four contenders, we will have a semi-final round to identify the two best burgers in Modesto. Then, at the end of the semester, the final round will determine the champion.
Here are our results from the first two rounds (points can range from 8 – 40):
Round 1
#3 Firken & Fox Mushroom & Swiss Burger with 26 points
#2 Firken & Fox Guacamole Swiss Burger with 27 points
#1 Bacchus Kobe Beef Burger with 28 points
The Kobe Beef burger advances.
Round 2
#3 Mike’s Roadhouse San Francisco Sour Dough Burger with 23 points
#2 In N Out Burger with 25 points
#1 Chili’s Shiner Bock BBQ Burger with 27 points
Chili’s Shiner Bock BBQ Burger advances
Round 3 will happen on September 29 and will include burgers from P Wexford’s, Fudruckers and Fast Eddie’s MOAB.
Round 4 will take place on October 13 and will feature burgers from Sips Bistro, Barking Dog, and Harvest Moon.
Weekend recap
So I had a really good weekend. On Friday night, I went out with about 20 coworkers to celebrate Lori’s birthday. People started to gather at Lori’s house at 7:00 and we had some drinks, appetizers, makeup checks, etc. At 8:00, the limo arrived and we took some final group photos and left for dinner. We arrived at Fuzio’s and met more of our party that were there waiting for us. Dinner was good and we made sure that everyone who walked by our group knew that we’d arrived in a limo.
After dinner (and more drinks) we piled back into our sweet, sweet ride and cruised around town for a bit. We hit several clubs that night and a good time was had by all.
On Saturday, I overslept and missed a meeting of the Parish Coordinators for the Catholic Legislative Network from our diocese. Oh well. I am happy to report that I was productive that morning, nonetheless. I straightened up my place, putting away boxes, thoroughly vacuuming the entire house, and putting a slip cover back on the couch. I even did some dishes. Mary came over in the afternoon to watch a couple episodes of Survivor (so now we’re only 1 behind!) and I showed her Pushing Daisies, which she liked.
I played for Mass, as usual and afterwards, went out to P. Wexford’s to enjoy the Irish Sessuin that occurs on the first Saturday of each month. My friend, Tawny and her sister met me there and we had a fun time talking and sharing stories.
Sunday, I woke up late and had to rush to get to church for the 8:30 Mass. I was on time but my voice was not ready for the day. I played/sang for 2 Masses but I had the 11:30 off because the Philipino group plays on the first Sunday of every month. I stopped at the taco trucks to get a burrito on the way home and bought lunch for a homeless guy, Mark. For the rest of the day, I played LOTRO with Danny, Lance, and Suzanne. Finally, in the evening I watched a little TV and stayed up too late playing Alpha Centauri on the computer.
Good times.
Busy times ahead! Proceed with caution.
We are in the last throes of summer before the fall semester starts. Just 3 weeks to go! I’m looking forward to being fairly busy for a few months.
I will continue to take the water aerobics class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I haven’t exactly seen results but it can’t hurt.
Immediately following class on Tuesdays, I will rush over to Community Orchestra. I’ll be playing percussion again and maybe viola as well. We’ll see if the stuff is easy enough to fake it.
I am also enrolled in the String Orchestra. This is the class that has music that I might actually be able to play. Class meets on Wednesdays and Fridays during the day. I’ll be taking a long lunch to attend.
On Monday nights I will be taking a beginning photography class. I plan on purchasing a camera in a couple of months so I thought it would be a good idea to start to learn about depth of field and composition and shutter speed and the like.
I am switching church music practice to Wednesday evenings and I will be attending choir practice on Thursdays on the weeks I am not attending a Knights of Columbus meeting.
All of this barely leaves time for online gaming and television, which as I’ve said before, really kicks into gear in the fall. Perhaps I need a class on time management…
The illusion of security
Well, good news. I will not have to change departments for at least the next several months. I had a talk with my boss, the VP of Instruction, and she was totally ok with making no changes at this time. She was pretty cool and very easy to talk to about the whole thing.
So. For today and for this weekend, I feel pretty secure with my job. But as experience has shown me, that can be fleeting. I will enjoy it while it lasts and try to hold onto it as long as I can.
Where will I be working next month?
I will never understand people who can embrace change. Perhaps they are like adrenaline junkies who need to live on the edge. Change is very difficult for me. It has become easier and less something to be feared but only to the point where it is now something to be tolerated when absolutely necessary.
One of my bosses approached me last Thursday to discuss a possible change in my job. It would involve switching campuses, as well as leaving the Instruction side of the house for a Community and Economic Development position. It would allow me to go from an 11-month employee to a 12-month but apart from that, I can see no benefit to making this switch.
I can, however, identify several reasons not to want to do this. There’s the moving to the West Campus part. The West Campus has a much smaller population of students right now. It also has fewer staff and faculty. It feels more lifeless over there. The String Orchestra class is during the day and meets on the East Campus. Right now it’s easy to extend my lunch by just a little to walk over to the Music Building for class two days a week. It would take at least an extra half hour out of my day to come over from the other campus. And I have friends here on the East Campus. Not so much over there.
Another reason to not do this is that Work Force Training, where I’d be going, seems so removed from the main work of the college. It’s important, what they do. And it is about delivering instruction but it’s dealing with businesses and such that want to bring instruction to their people. I like working in the Instruction Office. It feels like a hub for the college. WFT would be like being WAY out on one of the spokes of that wheel.
I am comfortable here in this office. I know what I’m doing. I get to interact with all divisions, and with staff, faculty, and administrators. Over there, I’d get to interact with the 5 or 6 other people in my department.
So, why do it if I don’t want to? Well, I’m not sure how much of a choice I have. I need to talk with the VP of Instruction to ask her what her plan for this office is. Will I have a place here in her vision? I may have to take this other job in order to be secure in my continued employment. I hope that’s not the case but I tend to worry a bit sometimes.
Arrrgh!
