The post before this one...

If the post prior to this one seemed a little weird, that's okay. I was using it for my class...Integrating Technology Into Curriculum... I'm done with that now, so it will be back to the regularly schedudled programming of my strange but boring life.

Let me at least give you this video...Let's keep it light with a little Barenaked Ladies...

Online Registration Makes Sense for Today's Students!

Here's a typical conversation of a student talking to his wife about registration...




Here's why we are advocating online registration for students at The Art Institutes International Minnesota...


In an effort to increase efficiency and to facilitate greater convenience for its students, The Art Institutes International Minnesota has instituted an online registration program. No longer will students have to wait in long lines for an opportunity to speak to one academic advisor with the possibility that the class he or she has planned to register for is closed. Students will now be able to register from the privacy of their own homes at the time of their choosing. This change will enable students to use their time far more productively. In November of 2008, the Orlando Sentinal reported that a public school using online registration for the first time was successfully able to register 60 to 70 students within 20 minutes. This not only saves time and energy for students, but academic advisors are able to deal with students and immediate concerns within the classroom rather than only counseling students one by one from a line and then entering their class choices. The November edition of Parks and Recreation reported that a Vermont parks organization was able to register over 300 individuals for one of their programs in a 90 minute period using online registration. These reports illustrate how online registration can give both students and teachers more time to truly be effective.

Many students in colleges and universities have adopted online registration due to convenience and an added sense of autonomy that comes with the process. In 2005 the Greyhound, the student newspaper of Loyola University reported that 736 of 837 of its seniors registered for classes in a location other than Newman Towers, the location for traditional registration. This online process also fosters a sense of personal responsibility that some students forfeit by just sitting with an advisor and automatically taking the advice given to them. Adult decision making is one of the positive byproducts of an online registration program.

This new registration process will allow students more time to attend to their studies or actually sit in classes rather than waiting in long lines outside the advising office. Many times students in crisis, who need immediate attention from their advisors, are not assisted because registration processes take precedence and they cannot break through lines to speak to their advisors. The effects of online registration may not be felt immediately, but in the future they may prove to be powerful and positive. We encourage students to begin registering online this quarter so these changes may become a reality and the school is able to be of greater service to all who attend here.


Here's a survey we want you to take to gain information about your registration experiences during past quarters.

Click Here to take survey

It could be worse...

Last night I didn't get to sleep right away. I suppose it could have been the excitement of watching football or having a cup of coffee at 7:30 in the evening. I decided that I didn't want to put J through my spastic rolling around in the sack, so I went out in the sofa to stare at the ceiling and try to get comfortable. At 2:00 in the morning I thought of how terrible my situation was for not sleeping. Whenever I think my lot in life is beginning to suck and clouds form on the horizon, I always go back to this scene in "Young Frankenstein." It makes me laugh and realize I just take myself way too seriously...

A few days ago J tried watching the TV series "Weeds" online. She had to download something called "Zango". To complete the download she deactivated the firewall on our laptop. It immediately went on the fritz and we had to send the dumb thing to the Geek Squad...we had purchased the laptop six months ago at Best Buy, so we thought that would be the thing to do. Yes, Vista was corrupted and we are out $130 to get it fixed. They say it's only a software problem, but there are still problems with the laptop, so they will probably have to send it up to get a higher level diagnostic.

J asked me if I was going through some sort of withdrawl from the laptop. I confessed that I was. She only uses it to talk to her mom on a daily basis. Her mom is in Hong Kong this week and won't be near her computer, so she isn't talking to her anyway. The laptop sits conveniently on the kitchen counter, so I do the dishes/sweep the floor/ clean up the kitchen I watch TV shows like Fringe, Bones, or Life On Mars. I rock out to Pandora when everyone's in the other part of the house. I also like to watch Arirang news...regardless of the fact that it's pretty benign stuff about Korea. I am abreast of Lee Myung Bak's trip to the states and Peru, and also up to date on German Shepards qualifying for a certain international standard in a Seoul park. J thinks I'm a nutcase for continuing to watch that news program and that I should be concerned with what's happening here and now in the twin cities. I think it's because I don't want to lose that feeling of closeness to that dirty, crowded, constantly buzzing behive of a city that I loved and called mine for a long time. Man...did I just go off on a tangent...

Well, anyway...we will be without the laptop for a little bit. I'm sure that during that time I'll look longingly over to the counter where the laptop sat. I know that withdrawl eventually goes away and is replaced by resignation. The laptop will return, but when...

Not quite there yet.

Thanksgiving is racing up to meet us and will soon pass us by. Christmas will be on the horizon and I have found my Christmas spirit...or rather it has snuck up and bit me. I got to my desk and sat down to work at the computer and I opened up media player...yes kids, I've been bad and ripped a bunch of music to my work computer...well, I fired up the old beast, selected some Christmas tunes, and slipped on my headphones. Isn't it amazing how a few bars from an old tune and conjure up warm images from deep down inside that completely color my perception for the day?

Crazy as it may seem, I'm wanting some snow. This is coming from the man who consistently whines about wanting to be in a warm place with crystal blue waters and soft sand. My kids are excited when they see a hint of snow on the roofs of the houses in our neighborhood. That little bit of infectious excitement has found its way into my chest and is slipping into my heart. The Bun is old enough to begin to get the fever for the season too. It's a good thing...

Now, we're doing something new. Instead of getting cheerfully robbed by the boy scouts at the neighborhood christmas tree lot, we're doing something different this year. We're actually going to a tree farm and cutting our own tree. Now don't picture the Griswolds going out and uprooting some huge evergreen in the middle of nowhere and lashing it to the top of the family truckster. The place we're planning to go to is a real tree farm that has trees that are specific for Christmas tree cutting. We've talked to my brother and there's a tree farm up near their place (about an hour away). We'll make a day of it and spend some time with them and share more Christmas cheer-plus we'll borrow his axe and saw.

I realize we have to eat our way out of Thanksgiving before we really get to the beginning of Christmas season, but gosh...I feel like I'm already immersed in it, and it's a good feeling.

Hugs in Seoul

Why do we shy away from human contact? What is it about us that makes us fearful of others? We shun the opportunities to either give or receive the gifts of kindness. The simple act of a hug is invasive and inspires fear. What do we have to fear? It's merely a gift from one to another. I am human and so are you...One simple act...with so much warmth and power. Let it begin with me...

Good Eats...assignment for class

Dr. Franchino has asked us to bring in a video from youtube that we might use in our particular fields. Initially, I thought about the youtube video with Paul McCartney teaching folks how to make mashed potatoes, but this probably is a better fit.

Mesopotamian fun

This is a cool video that my kids love to dance to. It's a little odd and a little like an animated spoof on the intro to the Monkees.

The Chicken Dance...

Check out the chicken dance from our vacation...

Dad loves his ladies...

Sugar Blues

For about three months last spring I purged my diet of all sugar. I lost about 10 lbs and felt great. I had energy and I felt as if I thought more clearly. I was an efficient machine. Then I was attacked by a rogue doughnut and the downward spiral began. First, it was a bag of sugar babies here and there. Then the occasional box of Good and Plenties. Our leftover Halloween bowl has been an evil nemesis, haunting me and beckoning me closer. I felt awful most of the time and knew it was a matter of time before I got back on the "no sugar wagon."

This morning, I put my foot down and said...No more!!! I want to feel clean and free of all the crud that has built up on my insides. About 15 minutes ago a student left a bowl of peanut brittle on my desk. They made a whole slough of it in Intro to Pastry (Why peanut brittle in a pastry class...I dunno...). It's just sitting there staring at me. I think I'll give it to one of the women in the cube.

Back from the wilderness

It's November...and I think it's a week or so before Thanksgiving. I know it's the last Thursday of the month or some such time. It's usually a gray day that we, as a family, gather to stuff ourselves into a near comatose food nirvana and then fall asleep to the glow of the TV with meaningless football on...maybe not meaningless to some folks, but by then I'm to groggy to care. By 7:00 in the evening it's too hard to even lift a remote control. After the whole gastronomic ordeal we've usually got enough leftovers to take care of lunches for the next two weeks or so...

It's cold at the bus stop again and I've started dreaming of south pacific islands once more. I know that this is frivolous and we won't be going back to the Philippines anytime soon. Heck, we'll be lucky to make it to Duluth by next year. But lately I sit all bundled up in my bus and dream about stepping off the plane and feeling that tropical blast of heat. My mind meanders to a land of "Manana"-note..I don't know how to put the little tilde thing on top of the "n" to make it Man Yana. I want to saunter slowly in my shorts and flip flops...I just want to feel sand in my toes...I want to relax...and just have life come to me in slow trickles...aaaahhhh take me away.

Nope...Ain't gonna happen anytime soon... I should just get over it.

The sound of Monday's marching feet

I was listening to a live version of Dave Matthew's Ants Marching a few days ago and it was another little wakeup call in life. I am a little commuter ant. I get up, shower, throw on clothes, help the kids get dressed, talk to J about what is happening during that particular day, leave and drive to the bus stop. I wait in line with all the other little worker ants, get on the bus and try not to think too seriously about what's going to happen during the workday. I get off the bus and walk a few blocks to school. The nice thing about my walk is that I get to walk through the downtown campus of St. Thomas University. They've got sweet smelling flowers and a fountain, which mellows me out(Yeah, I'm a guy and I like the flowers that I walk by in the morning, what's the big deal, huh?) I get in the building, climb up the stairs to the third floor, walk into our cramped office and say good morning to my coworkers, and get down to it for the day. Sometimes I like to hide in my cube for a little while before walk upstairs to the kitchen labs and see students.

This morning is one of those times I am hiding out in my little cube cave. I've slipped on my headphones and made my selection of music for the morning. I've chosen the soundtrack for the "Mambo Kings" to get my blood flowing. I'm knocking out a quick post just to get my brain functioning. I would like to try the coffee in the employee breakroom, but it has been known to rot out the bottom of styrofoam cups, so I'll pass and just let the music and the endorphines from writing get my heart pumping this morning.

I'm not feeling really responsible or too much like an adult this morning. I really want to feel like a kid. My birthday is coming up and it's another year older and I'm beginning to dread birthdays. I was reading the paper this weekend and I saw that a local sportscaster, who of course was younger than I, passed away from cancer. Yesterday, I also found out that a woman that I attended high school with had died as well. Hey, people get older and things happen. It's a part of the circle of life. I just feel like that the circle is inching up on me. I don't think about it a whole lot most days, but I found myself lying in bed last night thinking about who I'd like to invite to my funeral. I was going through that mental checklist of "yes, that person's cool...they can sit close to the front" or "No way am I inviting the butthead who gave me a wedgie in 8th grade to my farewell get together..." Yes folks that's what I do when I can't sleep. I think about that kind of stuff...why can't I just have simple fantasies about me being the last of the red hot lovers and all the women who can't get enough of old Samok Daddy? No...it's gotta be about whether there are enough goodbye salutes and toasts dedicated to me...or if they'll get someone to sing "I did it my way" at the funeral.

Enough ruminating today. It's time to get back to reality and be an advisor to the masses of excited culinary students in our fine institution. Hope you all have a fine day...

Rainy Friday in the Northland

It's a rainy Friday here in the twin cities. I'm in my cube and it's not busy, so I've slipped on my headphones and put on some music. It's kind of quiet at work. It's been kind of crazy for the past few weeks and I'm grateful for a respite from the feeling of push push push to ensure that students are back in their classes. That's the reality of working for a "for profit" college. Everything is about the number of students sitting in classes...If a student sits in classes, they can be billed for tuition. Butts in the seats...that's what we work for. We don't have any state funding, no endowments, nor do we have a rich alumnus tossing money at the school in order to name a library or residence hall after himself. Tuition is our only means of making money and reinvesting it for equipment and services for students. This is definitely a business.

Don't get me wrong...I am grateful that I have the honor of helping students get through school. It's a special feeling when you have the trust of a student because you have their best interest in mind. Despite the fact that we try to keep students in school because it pays our salaries, I want everyone here to succeed. Yes, I like what I do...but it's not a profession that rakes in cash hand over fist. However, I can go home at night knowing that I've done something good for people. Plus, there are perks being an advisor for a culinary program...they feed me.

On to domestic bliss...The Bun has started using her potty chair with great regularity. She still wets her pull ups, but she's making a great deal of progress. She gets to wear stickers on her clothes when she successfully uses the potty. She's quite choosey when we show her the sticker book. This sticker book is huge and she's taken ten minutes to choose...there are surfing princesses, angel kitties, happy faces, twisting dolphins, cute polar bears, and a whole lot of other things. J and I have concluded it's better to just pick out a cute sticker and slap it on her rather than let her choose. Giving her the continued opportunity to choose stickers may lead us to sitting with the book and waiting until mid-October before she makes a choice. She's gone along with mom and dad making the choice so far...so we'll just keep running with that.

Goobs has been watching too much Jetix. We've trimmed down the cable to the family level, which is local channels and a couple of kids/cartoon channels. One of the kid channels is Jetix. It's got a lot of superhero comics. I'm fundmentally not opposed to him digging on Spiderman, Batman, or any of the Superfriends, for that matter...But...J found him sleeping in the hallway last night. She asked him why he had his blanket in the hallway...he said..."Monsters." The villians and monsters on these shows seem kind of frightening, so it's a good possibility it is the combination the villians of Jetix and an overactive imagination of a soon to be five year old. J climbed back into bed last night and said..."No more Jetix for Richard." So...we'll go with mom's assessment. Looks like he'll be watching Sprout with his sister.

I know it's been a long time since I've posted and I can't remember if I mentioned that i got a new grill for father's day. I have been going crazy on the grilling. I've been doing a lot of pork chops lately. We've found this seasoning that rocks...It's a combination of ground garlic and bell pepper. It really puts those pork chops over the top. J's also been prepping veggies for me to grill. She's soaked them in extra virgin olive oil and seasoned them. I throw them on the grill with low heat and flip them over now and then...oh boy...asparagus...carrots...some squash...it's been great. We're trying to stay away from brats this year. I do love a good bratwurst, but absence does wonders. I get to eat a greater variety of grilled foods and I enjoy a brat more if I don't eat them every week.

Hey...one last thing. We are getting fired up for a little family vacation in the Black Hills at the end of August. Does anyone else have anything planned or have you already done something this summer? I'd love to hear what other people are doing.

Life's too short...

So, I was thinking about my own mortality. The passing of Tim Russert and Tony Snow has put me in a somewhat reflective mood. There was a particularly poorly reviewed movie, called "The Bucket List" that focused on things that you want to do before you kick the bucket. I'm not that old, but I'm coming to the conclusion that life's too short to just stay at the office and count what money or stuff you accumulate. So, I started thinking about some things I want to do...this isn't intended to be too overly serious...so let's not take this too seriously! Here's some of the stuff I am thinking about doing...

1. Spend July in France...I would really like to see the Tour de France...hang out up on some mountain road with a bunch of crazy international folk and have fun. I don't know why, but I want to wear a giant beaver suit and run out in front of the peleton for a short period. I see this old guy dressed as the devil with the pitchfork running out in front every year that I tune in to the tour. I want to be "the beaver guy" at the event.

2. I want to sit down for an evening of that sweet vietnamese coffee (you know...the kind with condensed milk)at a table on the beach (at a beautiful island resort) with Eric Clapton and Anthony Hopkins. I want to just talk about life with them and listen to the waves on the beach. Those guys probably have some tales to tell...and I just want to sit and listen.

3. I want to run a small tour and diving business in the Philippines. It would be great to learn everything I possibly could about a place and share that with people. Oh...yeah...baby that would be nice...Sun...sand...me...my boat...and tourists with sunscreen on their noses...

4. I want to try and do a standup routine at a comedy club. The routine would be about family...being a spouse and a parent. Heck...our lives are pretty funny. I might bomb, but who cares...My family provides so much good material. It would be a shame to keep all of that fun and weirness to myself.

5. Try to teach my wife to ski again. Since she only made it 1/4 of the way up the bunny hill last time, I feel it's my duty to get her up and going next winter. I know she's not going to be ready for anything close to the mountains of Jackson Hole, but I'm not giving up till she gets up that danged tow rope!!!

6. I want to see Dave Matthews in an outdoor concert during the summer with my wife. She's the big Dave Matthews fan, but I'd get a kick out of going too. I don't know how people would handle the geeky guy with a hawaiian shirt dancing in front of his lawn chair, but I don't care. I'm a dork...I like music...I wear bad hawaiian shirts...and most importantly...I dance, therefore I am.

7. I want to volunteer for a summer to work for a Korean Professional Baseball team. I would love to help the foreign players adjust to their new surroundings and make it fun...plus I get to hang out and watch baseball. I'd like to see if they pull pranks on each other like players do in the major leagues here in the states. If they don't I'd like to introduce them to the fine art of the shaving cream pie in the face or the dugout hotfoot. Maybe I can get some souveniers too...I've been thinking about seeing if I could get some Korean Baseball souveniers. Oh, I've switched teams...I'm cheering for the Lotte Giants now...

8. I have to say something silly...Hang glide nude over Dick Cheney's ranch in Wyoming. Whoops, maybe not...I could be the victim of an errant shot.

9. I want to be the voice of a character in a pixar movie. My voice sounds kind of dorky/silly, so it might just fit in...

10. I want to speak at Wartburg College's commencement ceremony one year...just to let them know that life's fun, a little weird, and way too short to be serious all the time.

You know...I don't know if I'll do any of those things...but what the heck. Why not dream...

A guy in a tie

Sometimes a guy just needs to look pretty!

The gift that keeps on giving

My son and the neighbor kid, Aaron have been hanging out and playing together a lot lately. They're fun to watch bouncing around the neighborhood and coloring driveways. Our little man came up to J and I last night and announced that Aaron was going to give him something. We asked what that "something was." It turns out that Goobs told Aaron how much he loved Spiderman. Aaron, being the caring friend that he is, told Goobs that he'd give him all of his Spiderman underwear. Now, that's a pal!

Little airborne rangers...

A lot has been happening at the Samok home lately. I've just finished teaching night classes and have finished a class that basically smoked my backside. I did well in the class, but the stress level was up to epic proportions for a while. I can breathe now and I feel like it's time to stretch out, smile, and blog a little. I'm taking a course that's a little easier and should prove to be a whole lot more fun. It's a graduate level communications course. I get to watch the movie, Crash repeatedly and write papers on it. It should be doable.

Alright, now for what's happening with the kids. As I've mentioned before, while in the army, I spent some time in an airborne unit. Yes, I did jump out of airplanes, but I wasn't a stellar jumper. I have landed in trees and accidentally gave my NCOIC a concussion with my right buttock while landing. That incident is hard to visualize, but I assure you it truly happened. So...what does this have to do with the kids? They have been jumping off of chairs and beds and executing parachute landing falls in blankets and pillows. I haven't been involved in any instruction. They've developed this behavior totally on their own. They seem fearless and are doing a pretty good job-of course this is coming from the dad who was a lousy jumper. Today things got a little wilder. I caught The Bun setting up her drop zone beneath the dining room table. I thought I put an end to her exercise by moving the blanket and pillows, but she moved them back when I wasn't looking. I went in another room to check on something. When I returned to the dining room she was on top of the table, ready to launch herself into her recreated drop zone. Daddy busted her again and ruined her fun. She was not amused with dad's commitment to safety. I know that had Goobs been around he would have been cheering her on and right behind her. Luckily, he was deeply involved with his afternoon love affair with the animated version of "Iron Man." He has been jumping off of beds and chairs with her, so I know that he's down with it too. I know that I'm going to walk in on them jumping off of the table soon. I hope that they won't kill themselves. I can hardly wait until they graduate to base jumping from the railing of the deck...

What kids sing in public...

Evidently there's a scene in the "Alvin and the Chipmunks" movie where the chipmunks do an imitation of "porn music"...that little riff that people jokingly do in break rooms around the country...Bao...chicka...Bao...Bao...(you know the little ditty I'm talkin' about) The upshot of this that my kids are now going around singing "Bao...chicka...Bao...Bao" in public places. Yes, they're doing the porn music parody. Daddy has told them he doesn't like this song, but they don't seem to listen to poor dad. They haven't sung it out loud at the mall or in McDonald's yet, but I have this fear that both of them will belt it out together and everyone eating burgers will stop mid-chew and have their jaws drop. People will wonder what those parents are teaching their kids...Oh the horror of it all...

Do I need a pitcher of Red Bull to keep up with my kids?

Gosh my kids are getting loud at the dinner table. They're fun and make J and I laugh, but it's becoming more evident that taking them out to restaurants may not be an option. Maybe I'm being just a bit sensetive...But they were yelling "Mamacita" at the top of their lungs yesterday. I know they got it from a movie that I haven't seen...

They were running around with these mesh hampers that J got for them...they weren't dragging them around, but were wearing them on their heads...actually completely over themselves. They looked like oblong walking mesh cubes bumping into each other.

I want people to see the fun that my kids come up with...I introduced J and the kids to my fellow teacher for evening classes. Venisha was completely blown away by how small and active they were. Maybe it's because she doesn't have kids...or maybe my kids are a little hyper (well...that may be a little trickle down from dad. I don't know...but they just keep me young and running.