Dakota's 2nd Grade picture

This is Dakota, my 7 year old. His latest picture is the bottom one, in 2nd grade. On the top, that was from last year, really, only one year ago. So, do I have a future hippie? Maybe. Is he trying out for "The Strokes"? Maybe. You know, I see his hair everyday but it wasn't until this pic came out that I realized how long it is getting. Lisa and I both like it, and are letting him grow it out. I don't know how long though. If we let it grow through the year, we could be looking at a serious headbanger. A new gentleman in our church asked about our "daughter". I imagine if Dakota knew that, he might want a cut. Oh well...I must say, it is amazing how much he has grown in a year, hair and all.

Andrew

Well, Andrew Prisk is leaving Marshall University. Andrew is my co-worker, has been for several years. I mean, I have known him since we both started about 8 years ago, but we have worked in tandem for the last 4 years. I am one of the only people that he trusts and speaks with candidly.

You would have to know Andrew to see whay that is such a big deal...he has a rough demeanor at times. We have had our share of irritations with one another, but, when it comes down to it, I will miss him.

He is a bit of a blowhard, certainly fabricating most of his stories for his benefit, to make himself look better than he really is, in his mind. you might understand that if you knew his background like I did. It frustrated me, and I would call him on it from time to time, but still, I suppose we were close to brothers in the work sense of things. He had a penchant for dropping F-bombs, as often as possible, to show off or take people aback.

He was also one of the most technically astute employees Marshall has. However, that caustic personality with others has burned way too many bridges. It was getting worse, and something was going to happen. So, it did. There will be many memories that I will keep from Andrew.

- Pug Ball: We acquired an inflatable beach ball and began a volleyball game in our old office. This evolved into a ball fight, trying to knock the crap out of each other, hence the name "Pugnacious Ball". Highlights include busting his ear, watching him topple trying to get at a ball more than once, playing "suicide", where we just sit and took the hardest shots from each other. I actually busted a coworkers glasses and knocked his ballcap off of his head in one shot. This lasted until our neighboring coworkers had taken so much of our tomfoolery that we were forced to stop.

- Swords: We acquired several protest sign poles of wood,and with packing tape, created wooden broadswords and battled until the sticks became splinters. A good experience in case I ever try to join the cast of "Conan" the musical.

- Discussions: At times, we were, along with a few others, Seinfeldian in our breaking down of the banality of office life.

- Christmas: Andrew and I were the single driving force to have a redenck Chrismas decoration frenzy that began just after Thanksgiving and lasted through til January. In our first office, the enclosed office with a locking door, we raised the mean temp to, I would say 80 degrees. I wore short sleeves to work in those days, with 70's era outdoor lights inside. Last year was the best...it was everywhere. Duct tape ruled, with every bad light available.

- Ball Fights: See here

One time, our friend Vince had an old, non working internal CD drive and was offering the opportunity to punch it. Well, I took first shot, a cautious shot that put a small dent in the case. Andrew, well he had to do better. He hit the heck out of it and nearly scalped his knuckle in the process. A good amount of blood and laughter followed that one.

I also recall the time that, after acquiring a teen photo of me in my mulleted teens, he made an oversize printout of it, cut it onto cardboard, glued it on and proceeded to take "me" around campus, shooting pics of me in various locations with various people. He made a website of it just for me. Very nice. The head of that cutout resides in George's office to this day.

There were so many other memories that I am not listing, things that were single occurences, things that left me in stitches. I will just say, there are not many like Andrew, and I will miss him.

Diplomatic classwork

So, grad school is actually school. I mean, they actually expect a large amount of work produced by their students, who normally have full time jobs. oh well, I took the class, I will do the work. I have one class that is working out well, but keeping me busy.

Take last week for instance, we have a group that is formulating a strategic plan for the organization of our choice, which turns out to be a no-kill animal shelter. Well, I volunteered to produce the Powerpoint, and when finalized, was asked to put in notes for the presentation. No problem sez I, I shall write out the entire script for our little production. I imagine after it was over, I should have put in a slide that said, "Executive Producer - Rob Williamson", "Screenplay - Rob Williamson".

Our group consists of a metallurgist from Special Metals, a help desk manager from the med school, a former HS teacher from Cameroon, and myself. The metallurgist has been in China for the last few weeks, so the med school manager and I handled the presentation. It went well, and she and I got an email that said we set the standard for the evening. Nice, and I got an acknowledgement from the group about the good work. I don't mind credit where credit is due, so that was nice as well.

Now, at the end of class, we get yet another presentation, to present our ideas on our grad program's evaluation matrix (yeah, yeah, don't ask). Well, everyone puts in their ideas, and since no one offered to combine the thoughts into one format, and it was the day before the due date, I assumed the responsibility. I pared down everyone's ideas to the commonalities and listed them in the matrix. I send them out with explanation and wait. Well, I got a call from the member from Cameroon. He wants to come up and discuss. Basically, he wanted to come up and lobby for his choices that were omitted from my finalized matrix. I spent a good 30 minutes with him, saying, "Well, now how do you see that as an opportunity?", or "Do you think these two can be combined?" In the end, it worked out pretty well. I think we will do fine.

Another Top 5

For those who aren't "in the know" top 5 lists seem to be the pinnacle of my church peer group conversations. You cannot talk to this group, or a certain few members of it, without being thrown into one of these lists, followed by a "that changed my life". I sometimes wonder if they are designed to stimulate conversation, or tools to show others how cool and original your thoughts are in comparison to the Philistine who actually likes Aerosmith. Oh well, I digress...This time around, I will tackle my top 5 underrated movies. George (a purveyor of the top 5) started this topic just the other day with top 5 underrated bands, but I thought movies would be fun for this post...bands to come later.

There is probably some argument as to who or what started the idea of the top 5 list, but the movie at number 5 is certainly a contender for the originator of the list:

5) High Fidelity - John Cusack and Jack Black. This is a very good flick, and Jack Black is hilarious. Many top 5 lists here, including "top 5 songs I want played at my funeral", "top 5 cool jobs", "top 5 Side 1, Track 1's"

4) About Schmidt - Jack Nicholson retires, his wife dies, his daughter is about to marry an idiot and Kathy Baker does a *gulp* hot tub scene. However, I love this movie, especially the end.

3) 3 O'Clock High - One of the overlooked 80's teen films, this one is about a school newspaper reporter, pretty much a geek, student manager of the student store, who touches the new mysterious bully by accident and is then challenged to fight at 3 o'clock. Lots of cool camera action, really a good movie.

1) The Game - This is an all time fave...you never know til the end.

1) A River Runs Through It - Probably most of my co-bloggers would not like this one, but to me, it is one of the best movies ever made. Just a fantastic story about a family with two brothers that grow up and into different directions. I could watch it any time it comes on.

I have some honorable mentions: Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels/Snatch, Silverado (great western), Searching for Bobby Fischer, Big Trouble in Little China, American Flyers (bike racing).

Well, there you have it. Let me know what you think.