Blog Archives - The Land of the Weird

The Land of the Weird

Minneapolis - Day Four

7/31/2017

We are almost at the end. Some of us our still filling out our (practice) doctoral committee assignment forms that we need to turn in tomorrow. Tomorrow morning, after we have our final session and have uploaded our DCAFs, we say goodbye to the new friends we have made as we head back to our homes around the country (and world).

One of my friends heard that there were food trucks nearby on the weekdays, so we went in search of them for lunch. The trucks lined the street with a wide variety of cuisines, and, thankfully, accepted credit cards. We sat and ate on a sort of amphitheater in a nearby plaza.

For dinner, I lucked into meeting up with a another group who were heading to Rock Bottom with a 20% group coupon. The food was good and the laughter was plenty. I have met some wonderful people who have all had unique experiences both in this degree process and in life as a whole.

I feel like my brain is swimming in all of the information that I have taken in these past few days. Still, I believe it has been an overall good experience. I do, however, look forward to sleeping in my own bed tomorrow night.

Minneapolis - Day Three

7/30/2017

I'm feeling a bit more in control of what I will need to do for my dissertation (and it looks like it will be a dissertation instead of a project study) after my time at the residency today. There is still a great deal I don't know, and a a lot of reading necessary to help fill that gap. At least I have a better understanding of how I can fill it.

Again, it is great to have the opportunity to hang out with other people going through the same struggles and who often have insights into areas in which I am having trouble. One thing about meeting people from an online university is recognizing just how wide-spread the student body is in a geographic sense. There seems to be a representative of almost every state in our nation and even Puerto Rico. One student is from Dubai!

I ate a relatively quick dinner (although I did order fried cheese curds) at a nearby restaurant as I wanted to make the 7 PM mass at Our Lady of Lourdes (having talked myself back into the idea with the help of Janelle). The Mississippi River provided some interesting scenery on the way. I was also impressed with the metropolitan scale of the city. At least one building seemed to bear an eerie resemblance to the main tower in the first Ghostbusters movie.

Tonight, I still have to get some homework done for one of the online courses that I've been taking this summer and perhaps find at least one more article that's in the realm of my research problem.

Minneapolis - Day Two

7/29/2017

My classes went fairly well today. I have to admit to being a bit out of it as I have not yet caught up on sleep. Much of the information I received today was similar to things I have already learned; however, the sessions did help to solidify my understanding of what is expected about the topic of my upcoming dissertation (or project study ... I still haven't fully decided).

The best part of this has been getting to meet, converse, and network with the fellow students as well as the presenting faculty. I had a great time with a fun group as we went out to lunch. More than any of our "getting to know you" activities in the class, talking with fellow students during meals really makes personal connections (and Facebook friends).

There was one REALLY disturbing element from the day: I saw a guy get tazed. I was nearly back to my hotel with one of my new friends when we heard the sound of a tazer (a kind of cheap one) going off only a few yards away from us. There was some altercation between the security guard at a store and one of the homeless (I think). Other security from somewhere else were calling in the incident, asking their dispatch to call the police and turn on the street's security cameras. The store security kept yelling at the homeless man to leave the area and then tazed him again when he didn't. We skirted the area and went on the hotel. The security guard used the tazer two more times, but this time as a threat--without touching the man. The homeless man went in our direction for a little while and then found something to start banging (it sounded like a trash can). Between this incident, and my wife's concern about me walking a mile away in this area, I have reconsidered my plan to go to the 7 PM mass tomorrow night.

Meanwhile, my room has only continued to creep me out. First, it's on the thirteenth floor ... and I registered into it on a Friday! The carpet coming out of the elevator gives me vertigo; yes, seriously. My door, as reported earlier, is behind a column. There is more vertigo-inducing wallpaper on the far wall in the bathroom. The place is a narrowly claustrophobic. There is a picture of a bison above my bed next to a picture of a woman who looks likes she's judging me (that's Janelle's job). My window looks into the interior of the building in a dystopian future sort of design.

Yeah, and I wonder why I didn't sleep well ...

Minneapolis - Day One

7/28/2017

Janelle dropped me off at the Kenai airport at around 11 PM yesterday (2 AM Central). I had a very short layover in Anchorage. I tried to sleep on the flight from Anchorage to Seattle, had a 4+ hour layover in Seattle, and got very little rest on the flight to Minneapolis. Unfortunately, towards the end of the flight, I got rather motion sick, a sensation that has followed me since, even just on elevators. I think one of the reasons is that the plane got rather warm, and I was feeling a bit claustrophobic--an issue only exacerbated by my lack of sleep.

The ride from the airport was interesting in both bad and good ways. It certainly reminded me of what true traffic congestion could look like as we were at a standstill several times on the freeway. I do, however, still reserve the right to complain about July driving in Soldotna. The good part was that one of the people sharing the van with me happens to be the professor in charge of my group at this residency. We only came to the realization slowly as we talked about where we traveled from and why we were here. He seems quite enthusiastic, and I'd like to think that I made a good impression.

My room is on the 13th floor. I am trying not to take that as an omen. My door also happens to hide behind a pillar, which does creep me out a little bit. Every latch that can be latched is currently latched. On the plus side, even the "slow" internet access which is free with my room is faster than my upload speeds at home.

I went to The News Room for dinner. Google claims it is one of the more affordable places to eat in the area. Google lies. It was not more expensive than the other restaurants around, but it certainly wasn't cheaper (and an 11% tax on restaurant food?!). I did like the decor and the food was good. The place was packed so the service was slow, but they were upfront about it and very friendly.

As my hotel and conference do not provide breakfast, I picked up some yogurt, granola (well, Kind Healthy Grains), and 42 plastic spoons at a local, multi-level Target. The guy at the checkout was very friendly. I was surprised that there were no customers at the checkout lines with cashiers (and there were six cashiers available), but there was a line at the self-checkout (which I usually try to avoid). I wonder if it had to do with how the store was laid out.

For all my years of visiting Minnesota, this short time has already shown me a version I hadn't seen before. Intellectually, I know that the Twin Cities are one of the more populated metropolitan areas in the U.S. (let alone the Midwest), and I have dreaded each time that I had to drive through them. However, I didn't fully grasp the true meaning of that until today.

Look at that. I've already learned so much from this trip and the residency hasn't even started yet ...

Minnesota Bound

7/27/2017

Later tonight (or very early tomorrow morning), I am once again getting on a plane to attend another educational not-quite-conference. Technically, I was supposed to do a residency back in December, but this was the first one that they offered that didn't conflict with other events. At this point, I have completed all of the pre-work for the sessions offered, and am packed for the trip.

I still have some overall concerns about food as it seems that neither the residency nor the hotel provide any. (Really? For this amount per night, there's not even a continental breakfast?). I'm certain that I will figure it out when I get there, but the overall cost of this residency is already pretty frustrating. Hopefully, I will have good things to say once it's done.

I really try not to wish away time as it seems to be passing so much more quickly with every day. However, I have to admit that I am really looking forward to being back home on Wednesday.

Getting Ready

7/26/2017

I've finished a few of my main assignments for my online classes this week despite their Sunday due date. In particular, I had to post a video project whose software is only on my desktop. I have to say that I'm quite happy that I opted to purchase the software when I first used it rather than sticking with the trial version since I ended up needing it for this class. I still have packing to do, but my mind is already resting a bit easier.

I've gone over my travel arrangements and the general schedule of events. It looks like I will have spare time on Friday after my plane arrives. I do not know how sleep deprived or jet-lagged I will be, but if there is someone in the Minneapolis area (or who is going to be in the Minneapolis area) who would like to get together, let me know and we will try to work things out. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, I will be engaged in residency classes until 5:30 PM (and I plan on going to a Sunday evening mass). Hopefully, not all of my free time will need to be spent getting caught up on assignments. I will then be travelling most of the day on Tuesday to get back home.

I am a bit concerned about Janelle's lack of sleep due to dropping me off and picking me up from the airport in Kenai as she has to get up rather early each of the following mornings. Her week has already been rather stressful due to how busy things have been at Freddy's. Unfortunately, flights that arrive and depart at decent times in the Lower 48 seem to have strange departure and arrival times up here (at least at the prices that I can afford).

A Little Overwhelmed

7/26/2017

I am still trying to wrap my mind around what I need to do for this upcoming residency. I spent hours today combing through the materials, making certain I have everything downloaded and ready to go before I get there. It's a little wild that I leave in only two days.

In the meantime, I still have coursework for my two online classes. I've managed to frontload some for one of them, but I need to spend a good deal of time tomorrow working on building a video for the other one. At least I got all of the assignments that are due tomorrow done today.

And, of course, I still need to pack.

This is all completely survivable, and I am up to the tasks at hand. I just will be much happier when this is behind me.

Projects

7/24/2017

Aside from switching out the cabin for a new guest and filling out paperwork for my new job at the high school, most of my day was spent on two main projects. The first was getting a new light fixture installed in the master bedroom. The previous one was a rather nasty circle fluorescent whose lights were burning out. In its place, we now have a ceiling fan (although Janelle doesn't really care for fans) with LED bulbs.

We also finally picked up a desk for Trevor. Unfortunately, we had to take nearly the entire thing apart to get it into the office. Thankfully it still worked out fine. Between that and his new chair, he seems to be pretty happy. I almost managed to get him to smile for the camera.

Upcoming Residency

7/23/2017

On Thursday night (technically, Friday morning), I fly down to Minneapolis for a 4 day residency. Admittedly, I'm a bit apprehensive about it. Unlike my time grading AP World essays in Salt Lake, I have to pay for everything. Among other things, this means that there won't be a staff member ready to greet me at the airport. My experience travelling has usually been with a group, or with someone at the arrival end ready to pick me up.

I also know that there is a good deal of work involved. The few days that I have there are packed pretty solid. I even have a little bit of coursework that I need to complete before I head down. Considering that I still have the two online courses that I've been working on this summer, I am a little afraid of information overload.

I am certain that it will be a good experience; I just a bit jittery.

Progress Days Parade

7/22/2017

The boys and I walked and rode with our church's float in today's parade. The weather was beautiful and people seemed to be having a good time. We also had fun, to the point that the boys said they want to do it again.

Star Wars Theme Park

7/21/2017

So, I know that I'm a bit behind the news on this one, but I just discovered that Disneyland and Disney World are both creating massive expansions called Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. As far as I can tell, it's a sort of Epcot for the Star Wars universe. There are shops, restaurants, and rides--including one where you pilot the Millennium Falcon.

Now, it's been quite a while since I've last been to an amusement park, let alone a theme park. Despite it being on the opposite end of the United States and the fact that it doesn't open for a couple of years (thus making it probably a couple more years on top of that before I would go), I'm quite excited about the idea. Although it will doubtless be expensive, I also REALLY like the idea of staying in the Star Wars themed resort which has suites set up as though we were actually living in Star Wars, including views of space.

The experience is supposed to be a role-playing experience. Costumes will be provided (no doubt for a price). Actions that you take at some of the sections will impact events that happen to you in other areas.

Now, I know that this entire experience is set to pull money from the pockets of fans such as myself. Still, I don't care. I want to be a Jedi.

A Good Day

7/20/2017

My day started with an early morning call where I was officially offered a teaching position at Soldotna High School. Short of getting my job at Skyview back, this was the best of the possible outcomes for me after getting laid off. I do not have much in the way of specifics to discuss as they are still making changes to the master schedule. Hopefully, I will have more information in a couple of weeks.

The day only got better when I picked up the mail and discovered that my copies of my novel, Dragon Hunter, had arrived. I have lost count of how many times I have read through that manuscript, but seeing it in book form makes me want to read it again. It also makes me want to write another.

A bit later in the day, FedEx pulled up and delivered a replacement for my iPad that mysteriously died. I have had quite a runaround trying to get it either fixed or replaced, so it is a huge relief to have it back in my hands before I need to use it during my residency at the end of next week.

To top everything off, Janelle brought home a cake today in celebration.

If this is a dream, please let me sleep a little longer.

Rain

7/19/2017

Despite the fact that I am getting a little tired of the nearly continuous rain that we have received the past few days, I still find the sound of rain to be quite soothing. In fact, when the rain is really coming down, I like to sit in our living room and just listen to it hitting our metal roof. We have enough insulation that the sound is more comforting than annoying.

Unfortunately, our lawn has become a bit of a jungle as I didn't take advantage of our last sunny day to mow it. Worse, our dogs have taken to digging in the mud like they're looking for buried pirate treasure. We have a towel reserved just for them waiting in the mud room, but they seem to want to jump up in the chairs with us when they are the wettest and muddiest. This has led to a lot of scolding and some sad-faced puppies.

This pattern is supposed to come to an end tomorrow, with sunnier days and warmer temperatures on the way. Hopefully, the weather cooperates with everyone's weekend plans. In the meantime, I'm going to spend some more time listening to the soft patter of raindrops.

Slowdown

7/18/2017

As I will probably, and hopefully, be starting a new job next month, and thus next term, I requested to go a bit slower with my program at Walden. It turns out that I didn't need to call, as I was already scheduled for a slowdown due to when my next (and final) six classes are available. Once they are done at the end of next summer, each quarter will be dedicated to creating my dissertation. For the most part, it will be up to my own dedication as to how long that will take. I am feeling much more confident about the process after the classes that I have taken.

I'm going to be a bit happier with this slowdown as, even though I have not been teaching this summer, the ten credits that I'm currently taking have required a lot of time. For the record, I am also counting the time that I am doing other things but still thinking that I should be working on my coursework. With that in mind, I need to be careful that I don't take lose my drive as I slow down the overall course load.

This term also has my residency in less than two weeks. It's only a couple of days, and most of my fellow students who have already gone to theirs said it was worthwhile. However, right now, it feels like just one more thing that I have to contend with. Hopefully, I'll come back with a more positive outlook on the experience.