You Can Appear Popular. Here's How.

In the game of life, it often comes down to this:

Some people are socially attractive.

Others aren’t.

Some people upload scores of pictures that show themselves surrounded by those who are desirable and delicious.

Others don’t.

For those who are already socially attractive, uploading these pictures is no prob. They have tons of them—just from this month.

But for the rest of humanity—the other 97% of the population—life is not so exciting. And that’s a problem because the appearance of popularity translates into social capital.

What to do?

I can imagine service that will take pictures of you with attractive people in a variety of enticing social environments.

Let’s say I start this service. We’ll use some imagination here.

I would begin by hiring a pool of attractive people to include in the photos with you. These people need to be attractive, but not so attractive that the shots with you in them become too hard to accept. We could squeeze you into this appropriately attractive cast of characters for a variety of group shots. For example, there could be pictures of you on a hay ride, surrounded by attractive members of the opposite sex. They are clearly laughing at a joke you just told. Fresh smiles. Sparkling eyes. All directed toward you, you little devil.

Of course, there would also be several pictures of you just one-on-one with other members of the opposite persuasion. You are irresistible, and the pictures don’t lie.

Would you do this for $99.99?

Or what about a Photoshopped version for only $49.99?

Would you do this if you were confident that no one would discover your secret?

What would paying for this service say about you?

And if this business became successful, what would it say about our culture?

The Luck of the Irish at Red Lobster

We went to Red Lobster for lunch, even thought we didn’t have the excuse of a gift certificate this time. How indulgent of us. After noticing an empty parking space on a busy shopping day, I challenged Raul Matthew and Melissa to guess the color of the next vehicle to pull into that spot. I guessed white, Melissa silver, and Raul Matthew green. On the line was who would get to select the dessert. I felt fairly confident as about 30% of the cars passing on US 31 were white. Surprisingly, several minutes went by and the space remained empty. I knew one thing: No green car would pull into that space. I hadn’t seen a single green vehicle pass by in minutes. It was then that I remembered, WE have a green car. It was parked on the north side of the parking lot where Little Raul couldn’t see, so I decided to have a little fun with this. I excused myself from the table and moved our green car into the parking space under contest. In the end, Little Raul technically won but at least he chose the lime cheesecake for dessert, so I guess we all won.

Manatees, Fabio, and Canonballs--at IU Kokomo

The fact that IUK is in Kokomo is the giant manatee in the bath tub that no one wants to talk about. And, there isn't a lot that can be done to change the facts of the situation, at least in terms of the physical side of the equation. Kokomo will continue to be seen as a strip of blight on U.S. 31 and IU Kokomo’s campus won’t look like Frank Lloyd Wright’s capstone project any time soon. There are clearly some limitations when it comes to marketing the school. It’s kind of like the frumpy dude I saw in Meijer last night who tried to make a pass at an attractive woman as they pushed their carts past each other. I could see this one going down in flames before she even met his eyes. Some things just aren’t going to happen.

On the other hand, it's okay that people aren't coming to the school from across the globe given that our mission is to serve an 11 county area and that we aren't a residential campus. What the school needs to do is to more effectively market itself to potential students in the north central Indiana region. Interestingly, according to Robert Nowack, one of IU Kokomo's Vice Chancellors, the majority of the school's graduates remain here in the area. So, the school needs to market itself here at home and become the best that it can be in servicing the students it recruits. Like the cart dude, IU Kokomo ain’t no Fabio. And like the cart dude, the school will have to promote what it can offer. “He’s no Fabio, but he can sure steer a mean cart.” Finding out what can make IU Kokomo great for its more localized market—and achieving this in such a way that current and potential students perceive this greatness—is what the changes should be all about.

In the end, we’ll see what gets done. As for yours truly, I proposed to the humanities faculty that the school hold next year’s Freshman orientation meeting at Kokomo Beach. And, I was only ½ joking. This is a new event in which all new students show up on campus to become indoctrinated about the IU Kokomo way. This fall, we had a funeral processional of the faculty into the big black hole that is Havens Auditorium where students listened to “wisdom” about the value of a higher education, and then we had a barbecue. That’s cool, and students seemed to get something from this. But we need to make ourselves distinct—a different type of school. And what better way to welcome in your college education than the sight of Chancellor Person doing a cannonball from the high dive?

Beef, Books, and Bodywash

I loaded up the fam and headed to Lafayette to meet Mike, my college roommate from my sophomore year, at the Texas Roadhouse near the Tippecanoe Mall. This time I used both my gift card and my digital camera. After dinner, we headed across the parking lot to Richard Nixon’s Sporting Goods where I ended up beating Raul Matthew in air hockey by a score of 20 – 15. Actually, it was Florida State beating Purdue according to my son, and this was sad given that this was taking place on Purdue’s “home field.”

We then headed to Barnes and Noble where I once again looked for something to spend my $50 gift card on. I took another look through the music area and didn’t find anything that I felt compelled to purchase. Had this just been a matter of spending $50, I could have found any number of CDs or DVDs to get. But given that this $50 was a gift for my graduation, I felt restricted, as if the purchase needed to mark the occasion somehow. It’s interesting how we can create mental boxes that hem us in. Maybe I’m just speaking for myself. I almost got a box set of Mozart’s symphonies, but decided against it when they all seemed to sound alike when I listened to the first few seconds of each clip on one of the preview listening stations. I’m sure it also didn’t help that I was trying to listen as a 7 year old was persistent in asking when we would finally be going back to the kids section. So we left there and headed to the cooking area. I knew what I was looking for, but I couldn’t find it. But after asking for help at the information kiosk, I struck gold. They had one copy of Perfect Chef by the Culinary Institute of America, and it’s now mine, all mine. I don’t know if this is “the definitive cooking guide,” but it sure looks like it. Great pictures. Great explanations. Great cultural overviews. Great about everything. I’ve been wanting this book ever since I first saw it a couple of years ago at the Williams-Sonoma store at the Keystone by the Crossing mall in north Indy.

We then went to Meijer on the way out of town where I purchased some ingredients (sherry, garlic, and an onion) to make a Cuban-Creole chicken dish for dinner tomorrow night. I also looked for annatto seed, which is combined with olive oil to create annatto oil—a foundational sauce in many Cuban dishes, but not as widely used as the sofrito sauce which serves the same purpose. I don’t have the first clue about Cuban cooking, but I’m kind of interested in it given that I lived in Hialeah, Florida during the late 70s. I don’t ever recall eating much of the local flavors during my time down there, but I’m drawn to the thought of using fresh and tropical ingredients to broaden my culinary experience. The fresh part may be a challenge given the limited produce sections in the Kokomo area, but I’ll see how it goes.

One other thing about Meijer--over the 14.5 years of my married life I have often found myself camped out for prolonged periods of time in specific areas of a store. When life comes to a standstill during times like these, I've found ways to keep myself from falling asleep by engaging my powers of observation. Tonight, it was the body wash aisle--an entire aisle of nothing but sleek-looking plastic bottles of body wash. It's obvious, I guess, that there are two basic types of body wash. About 3/4 were for women and 1/4 for men. Many of them were in the androgynous category, but given the fruity scents and frilly scripts, I'm just putting them in the female category. In this genre of gels there are a wide range of scents going from the relaxing scents of lavender to the indulgent scents of honey and cream to the invigorating scents of citrus blends. Most of these smelled good, but the cucumber melon--why take the risk? As for the guys, there was a variety of words to describe what was in the bottle--artic blast, glacier cool, ice mountain, etc.,--but there was only a single male scent in the bottles despite the variety of names used for marketing. Oh, and a few of the male bottles had broken caps, whereas none of the female brands had been dropped. It made me wonder if any male ex-cons had anxiety attacks after fumbling on the soap aisle.

On the way to Meijer, we passed the Lafayette Journal and Courier building east of Lafayette on 500th street, and it was really cool because the entire side of the building facing the road was nothing but a giant glass wall revealing a two-story newspaper printing machine. It was like the Krispy Kreme of the publishing industry—a glorification of the gears of production. It takes that which has in the past been kept out of view and shines a spotlight on it. That got me thinking—I wonder if more businesses will do this. It’s kind of cool. Just then we passed the next building—the Arnett Clinic Surgery Center. Despite this cutting-edge idea, I don’t think I’m ready for the glorification of surgery quite yet.

A Close Shave with Ronald McDonald

Raul Matthew and I went to Lowes to look for a gas burner so that we can start doing some serious wokking. We wanted something that looks like the back end of an F-15, to use the wording of Alton Brown. This burner wasn’t sold separately, so there I was taking apart a turkey deep fryer in the middle of the aisle and reading the directions to see if it was up to the wokking task. It was. Now I just need to figure out what to do for the propane tank part. I’m guessing I’ll just buy my own tank and have it filled at those places—wherever they are—that do such things. After my son tired of hosting a cooking show back in the kitchen cabinet area of Lowes, we left there and headed to McDonalds—my son’s choice (even though he said he was “full” a mere 5 minutes before when I suggested that we pick up some Chinese food).

So we were in line at the McDonalds near campus when I looked up and saw a bottle of Colgate shaving cream in one of the higher up windows that was between the first and second drive through windows. This got me thinking a number of thoughts that the marketing people at McD’s didn’t anticipate. Enough about that.

What really surprised me were the double pink lines I saw when I got home.

A Tale of Two Tasks Forces at IU Kokomo

In light of Liz's insightful comments to the last post (on Facebook), I'll offer a better description of what the faculty is doing to pull its weight. Liz proposed forming a task force, and that's what has happened.

There are two task forces that are basically answering the same questions. The first was formed in the School of Arts and Sciences (SOAS) under the leadership of Dr. Sue Giesecke, the dean of this school. A group of about 30 of us faculty members have been meeting throughout the academic year to find creative ways to take our school to the next level. We've been studying the basic themes of the popular business book, Good to Great, and exploring ways to create a higher degree of excellence at IU Kokomo. Tiffany's negative experience in the campus bookstore should be a rare oddity, but it probably isn't at present. :) Although we have met a couple of times as a larger group, most recently on December 8, most of our work has been carried out in five smaller brainstorming groups. There is great potential to get things done with the SOAS, which is the largest of the schools on our campus, and by extension, there is potential to influence the rest of the university as well. At the end of the last meeting, Dr. Giesecke asked for volunteers to join a leadership team that will take the SOAS to the next level. Yours truly was one of the two who has accepted the call, and I'll be working with Sue and any others who volunteer to do what we can to take some major steps toward making our school great. So, that's the first task force.

The second task force was called by Chancellor Ruth Person and was a more direct response to the budget shortfall that hit us this year when enrollment took a hit. I'm also a member of this task force, and I've been assigned to work on a committee that is brainstorming ways to promote our institution to its key publics. This committee is more short term in nature. Our final reports are due Feb. 15, and after that, I guess we'll exist no more. This task force is oriented toward developing broader goals and leaving the details to someone else. For example, ideas to promote IU Kokomo via facebook, or student blogs, or K-GOV channel 2 have been dismissed as being too specific. This group does not promote a "rubber meets the road" discussion, but seeks to strategize at a broader level.

In the end, it will be interesting to see which group does the best job of bringing about the type of organizational change that results in IU Kokomo having more students and offering a better educational product. On the one hand, the chancellor's group includes all of the key administrators who hold the legitimate power to get things done. On the other hand, the SOAS committee is composed entirely of tenured or tenure-track faculty members who have the most contact with our students. Perhaps the SOAS group should focus more on retaining the students we have through offering the best educational product possible while the chancellor's group should focus more on recruiting students to IU Kokomo from withing the 11 county area that is our market.

Personally, I expect to have far greater influence through the grass-roots orientation of the SOAS group which aggressively seeks my input and involvement than I'll have in the other group, which is far more top-down in focus. I'll keep you posted.

One last thought--shouldn't there be some students involved in this process, at least in terms of offering input? Seems obvious to me.

Your man on the inside,

Raul

IU Kokomo Town Hall Meeting

I attended a special meeting at 2 PM today that was called so that Chancellor Ruth Person could address the growing concern among staff over the school’s recent moves to outsource the campus bookstore. Naturally, employees in other areas, such as maintenance and custodial work, would also wonder if their jobs were in danger as well. We met in Kresge Auditorium where Vice Chancellor Bill Yost forced everyone to sit in the front section of the auditorium.

Chancellor Person began her manuscript delivery by explaining the trends that were affecting the IU system. There is a system-wide move toward reassessing organizational structures. IU Northwest, for example, had recently reorganized a significant part of its academics. There is also a move to outsource in-house operations to compensate for budget shortfalls. The IU East campus in Richmond has a budget shortfall of around a million dollars while IU Kokomo is running with a shortfall of about 1/3 million. In particular, the transportation at IU Kokomo has already been outsourced. On the potential chopping block are the campus bookstore and the current food service provider, AVI.

What to do? Person suggested the following three solution steps: Creativity in finding new solutions, working on recruiting new students, and understanding the potential need for RIF—reduction in force. In short, every IU Kokomo employee must be actively involved in recruiting new students.

Interestingly, I saw only one other IU Kokomo faculty member there.

Last Day of Company

Breakfast

We went to the Courtyard by Marriot at 7:35ish to meet Raul and Lucy down in the restaurant for coffee, and we found my mom down there as well. So we pulled a couple of tables together and had breakfast as a group. Raul and Lucy left about 8:00 to head for the airport, and we then went to my mom’s room to help her pack her bags.We then gave a driving tour of Kokomo that included passing by Walnut Creek Apartments where we used to live (wow did that place look run down), and going up 31, west on Markland and over to the Seiberling Mansion area, and then on to IU Kokomo, where we stopped for a few minutes and saw my office. Mom wants to take pictures that look out of people’s windows just to appreciate this vantage point. We then went back to our apartment to open a few gifts. We then loaded up and headed down to Carmel.

Helios Gift and Tea Shop

We ate at the Helios Gift and Tea Shop on Main Street in Carmel. It was definitely a flowery, female environment and I was the only man there. The tea room was set in an older house that was crammed with pinkish gift items. I ordered the chicken salad sandwich. The cinnamon flavored tea was good, and the desserts (especially the raspberry cheesecake) were excellent. Before we left, I checked the fluids on the car because the check engine light kept coming on during our way to the restaurant. The coolant may have been a bit low, so I added about 2 cups of water to the reservoir tank.

Airport

We took my mom to the Indianapolis International Airport a couple of hours prior to her flight on Northwest Airlines. My mom and I jumped out at the Northwest area, and Melissa and Little Raul parked the car on Level 2. After checking in my mom’s bag at the curbside service, we joined up with Melissa and Raul Matthew and window-shopped at a jewelry shop and the B. Dalton bookstore. We saw my mom off at the security checkpoint at Concourse A.

Greenwood

We stopped by Kim (Melissa's sister) and Tim’s to drop off some food from the weekend. Kim was working in the kitchen and Tim was repairing a door on their entertainment system. I played a few downs of football with the kids in the front yard and also tried to throw the football from their driveway over a tree and into their neighbor’s yard to the north. Instead, the ball fell down into the tree and thankfully didn’t get stuck. Their road had just been repaved, and the circle in the middle of the cul-de-sac was bare dirt. I tried to convince Carter that the ND emblem on his ball cap stood for “No donuts” instead of “Notre Dame.” He didn’t buy it. Brianna was doing a Suduko puzzle. We then went to Half Price books were I found cookbooks on Asian and Cuban cooking. Melissa picked up a few books for Raul Matthew in addition to a computer program for learning Mandarin. We then went to the Byroms for dinner where I worked on blogging about this weekend while we all watched the Colts play the Bengals on Monday Night Football.

My Graduation from Purdue

Breakfast

I drove to the Courtyard by Marriott at 8 AM to pick up my mom. While I waited in the lobby, I collected and read through the brochures for the regional attractions and found a few places that I would like to take the family for some R&R—most of which involve an indoor swimming pool. There is something about an indoor pool and the smell of chlorine that spells r-e-l-a-x-a-t-i-o-n to me. At about 8:30, I asked the front desk to call her room, and they were kind enough to give me her room number (109). Nice room, by the way! The bed reminded me of an extremely comfortable one I had at a Sheraton in St. Louis. We got back home a little before 9 AM, and by then Melissa had a nice breakfast of eggs and fruit along with pumpkin pie and some kind of ginger spice strudel from Bob Evans. Raul and Lucy showed up about 9:30, followed by Melissa’s parents at 10:15. I ironed my doctoral robe, and we headed out for West Lafayette around 11:20. The drive to Purdue was gray and dreary. It wasn’t the ideal weather, but it wasn’t all that cold, so I can’t complain too much. In as sense, it was a fitting way to end my higher education, all of which has taken place in the Midwest. Melissa did most of the talking from the back seat on the way over—kind of a movie director’s commentary on a DVD. Oddly, there were few cars (if any) at FBC Russiaville as we passed by there around 11:30.

Pre-Ceremony

We go to the University Street parking garage about 12:30, so we snacked on some grapes and apples as well as pinwheel sandwiches before we parted ways—me to the Armory and the rest of the family to the Elliot Hall of Music where the ceremony was held. I had to report to the Armory at 1:20, so I was there quite a bit early, which was fine with me. I was feeling a bit nervous and just wanted to check and double check that everything was in order. Upon entering the Armory, a woman worker gave me an information card to fill out regarding the pronunciation of my name, etc. I took this card to a station on the west side of the room to get a picture of me taken with my cap, gown, and a diploma cover. After this, I went over to the Graduate School table to line up behind the “Doctor of Philosophy” sign. I was assigned #57 in the marching order, and the worker at the grad school booth folded my gown over my left arm, and I kept it there until the marshal took it from my arm during the hooding ceremony. I had about an hour to wait around, so I chatted with a couple of other Ph.D. candidates, Harsha Gunawardena from the Triangle Park area in NC who was graduating in analytical chemistry and Maryse Jayasuriya from El Paso with a degree in English.

At 2:03 PM—the same time that Melissa and I were pronounced man and wife 14 years ago—we began marching from the Armory to Elliot via the scenic route. One of the Purdue trains was parked outside the door as we exited the Armory. We turned east, and headed east toward Elliot Hall as it began to sprinkle. It was a shock to the whole line when we realized that the processional kept marching past the entrance to Elliot and toward the engineering square where the giant fountain was. We marched toward the far end of the square and then toward the fountain, which was off given the time of year. For the most part, we marched without anyone saying a word. It was just the sound of high heels clicking and clomping herd-like along the wet walkways. Our line parted around the main fountain and then headed toward the stairs of Hovde Hall where the same mascot train met us once again. There were also two plain-clothes security guards scanning the crowd. They looked as if they were from some eastern European crime organization. Climbing the steps and going into Hovde Hall was a surprise to me, and it seemed odd to march past the place where we had to pay our bills. We walked through the 2nd floor of Hovde and across a second story walkway that led into Elliot. A woman was filming us with a large, mobile TV camera as we marched into the building, and although we didn’t know it at the time, the feed was going live to the large screens in the front of Elliot. I looked for the family as I marched down the aisle, but didn’t see them. As it turned out, they were on the second row of the first balcony. We filed in to our rows and waited for the rest of the candidates to enter.

Ceremony

After the national anthem and a moment of reflection, Martin Jischke, the President of Purdue, gave an excellent address to the candidates to mark the school’s 200th commencement. He gave an extended illustration about Harvey Wiley, one of the first faculty members at Purdue and the “father of the FDA.” He also made the point that we have a valuable resource that the wealthiest older people would trade their wealth for—time. So, what are we going to do with this time. He also mentioned that the Space Shuttle flight currently in orbit is commanded by a Purdue graduate.

Following the conferral of an honorary degree on Deborah McDowell, an expert in black critical feminist theory, it was our turn to be hooded. Our section was asked to stand and make our way to the stage, and the hooding ceremony began. It took 3 or 4 minutes before it was my turn to walk across the stage, but in that time, it was fun to look up and see those ahead of me being hooded. I felt emotional when thinking about their accomplishment, almost as if I was somehow a distant observer of the event. When it was my turn to be on stage, I offered my hood to the marshal, stepped in front of the wooden rostrum while facing the audience, and was hooded by Cindy Nakutsu, the interim dean of the graduate school. I then walked over the Martin Jischke, who handed me my diploma while saying: “Congratulations, Dr. Mosley. Great job and best of luck in the future.” I then left to the stage and returned to my seat where I was relieved to be done with my part of the ceremony.

When the ceremony was over, I scanned the audience for a couple of minutes before finally spotting Melissa on the first balcony. I made my way toward the back of the auditorium as Melissa took pictures and Little Raul waved from the balcony. I went up to the balcony and we took pictures for a few minutes until it was obvious that the event staff was waiting on us to clear out the balcony. Plus, my robe was supposedly due back to Follett’s by 5 PM, which was only about 10 minutes away. We took a group photo in the lobby and then rushed to Follett’s where I was able to return my robe down in the text book section on the lower level. As it turned out, the store closed at 6.

Dinner at Olive Garden

I ordered the Tuscan Garlic Chicken, which was excellent, although I could have just as easily gone with the Roma Chicken. I sat at a round table with Raul, Lucy, and Little Raul, while the rest sat at an adjoining rectangular table. Although the tables were pushed together, the conversations took place mainly within each table. I talked mainly with Raul about my dissertation and how Raul is planning on writing some articles on the topic of immigration.

Drive back.

The drive back was dark and rainy. What a dreary and depressing landscape when it is raining at night in north central Indiana. I caught up with some of the news from home. We stopped to see Christmas lights at Oaklawn Acres between Lafayette and Kokomo. This was a great display, but somewhat hard to see through the foggy windows.

Back at Home

We got back to the apartment and loaded the boxes that were in Raul and Lucy’s rental back into the Byrom’s Suburban. We spent about an hour chatting as Raul Matthew played on his Pearl Harbor computer simulator game. Raul and Lucy left about 9:30. Mom then gave us a couple of gift books—one dealing with the Advent season and the other was a childrens' book that had flashing Christmas lights embedded inside the back cover. I took my mom back to the hotel, and returned home to work on recording the day’s events.

You can check out photos of this day at http://community.webshots.com/user/RAMosley.

My Graduation Reception

Starbucks

At 8:30 AM, we drove to the Courtyard by Marriott to meet Raul and Lucy before heading to the Kokomo Opalescent Glass factory. While waiting in the lobby, I heard a familiar voice coming from the dining area, a voice I recognized as being a sports announcer or commentator on 1350 AM in Kokomo. I figured that he was just having breakfast, but as it turned out he was doing a live radio broadcast with coaches of some of the area basketball teams. I verified this by going through the front doors to where Melissa was parked directly outside and turning on the radio to hear the live broadcast. I jokingly told Melissa, “Tell me if you hear a loud sneeze when I head back in.” When Raul and Lucy came down, we headed in separate vehicles to Starbucks where I got a medium-sized Raspberry Mocha Latte. With caffeine in hand, we drove to the KOG for our tour.

Kokomo Opalescent Glass Tour

Lindsey was our capable tour guide, and she did an excellent job. I used this opportunity to mainly take pictures of unusual objects, such as old carts that had been used to haul glass probably since the early 1900s. After the tour, Melissa and Little Raul headed back to prepare lunch while I stayed behind in the gift show with Raul and Lucy. After a while, I headed outside to take pictures of the abandoned Continental Steel site with its broken windows and rusty water tower. It was a good feeling to have the emotional freedom to spend time taking creative pictures without feeling guilty that I’m not working on my dissertation. Back at the gift shop, Lucy asked me to show her some glass gift that Melissa would like, but I couldn’t find anything that I thought would strike her fancy. Instead, I suggested that they do something that related to learning Mandarin Chinese, or that related to Chinese culture, etc. We went the apartment and had the superb butternut squash soup that Melissa made. You can check out pictures of the tour at http://community.webshots.com/user/RAMosley.

Setup for the Reception

It took us a couple of hours to setup for the reception. Before we headed over to the club house, Lucy and Raul encouraged Melissa to go get her hair done, something she had voiced a desire for a few times throughout the afternoon. So, she finally got an appointment at Solutions, and she headed there as Raul, Lucy, Raul Matthew, and I headed over to the club house to set things up. The first thing we did was to rearrange the furniture in accordance with the schematic Melissa handed me. In about 45 minutes or so, we had rearranged the place, which basically involved reversing the order of the room. We also set up the coffee pots, plugged in the crock pot, laid out the chips and trail mix, etc. When the Byroms showed up with my mom, we had a ton of food and party supplies to unload from the Suburban. After about an hour of unloading and organizing, the place was looking functional again. It was great to see my mom again. My mom helped Mrs. Bryom set up the cake area while Raul and Lucy worked together in the kitchen to wash the fruit and prepare the veggie trays. Once things were mainly in place, I asked Mr. Byrom to drive me back to our apartment so that I could get changed and pick up a few items. I changed into my black outfit with my gold tie, and we headed back to the club house.

The Reception

Melissa began by presenting me with a large, thin package to unwrap, and this turned out to be a poem she wrote entitled, “Twas the day of graduation.” She read this aloud to us all with a performance that impressed everyone and made several people ask, “Who’s the one with the doctorate in communication?” She did a great job and made it through without crying, which she had been concerned about. She then presented me with a spectacular scrapbook that chronicled our life together since the fall of 1999 when we started the doctoral program. The cover page was one of her word pictures that spelled out “Doctor Raul Mosley” in the shape of a college graduate. I got several other great gifts from the rest of the family, but I won't mention them here because they might not want that. Thanks to all of you nonetheless!

People basically came to the reception in waves. First, there was family. Then, members of First Baptist Church of Russiaville showed up. Then Mike Knoerzer and his family came during the presentation of gifts. At 6:44, I realized for the first time that none of my students had come, despite the fact that 7 had indicated on facebook.com that they were coming and another 33 showed that they might be coming. Closer to 7:15ish, Don and Jennifer Sedberry showed up, followed by Faith Rose Scales, and later by Lori Cardwell.

Clean-Up

I rearranged the furniture by myself this time to the best of my memory, and it turned out well, but was different from the original arrangement. Mr. Byrom took me back to the apartment where I changed into jeans and a sweater and I also picked up the Dyson vacuum. The most time consuming part seemed to be loading all of the stuff back into the Suburban and also into the back of Raul and Lucy’s rental SUV. We also delivered a few loads to our apartment. And, I delivered a few loads of trash to the more than full garbage dumpster. My mom left with the Byroms from the club house to head back to the hotel, and Raul and Lucy dropped Melissa, Little Raul, and me off back at the apartment. After we were alone, Melissa gave me a personal tour of the scrapbook she created. Very touching.

You can check out pictures of the reception at http://community.webshots.com/user/RAMosley.

Dinner at Chilis

Melissa, Raul Matthew, and I met my father and Lucy at Chilis for a late dinner tonight. I thought we might have the luck of having Ashley Toor as our server, but she had just been “cut” from the floor 15 minutes prior to our arrival. She was still kind enough to come out and chat with us, and she assigned us to David who took good care of us. I got the Southwestern Cobb salad and the Blackberry Ice Tea.

It was good to touch base and catch up on the latest developments. My father has been busy in his new position as an appointed judge on the Ft. Worth city circuit. I didn’t know much about his position given that he has been doing this for just a few weeks now, but he explained that he is responsible for accepting pleas and setting bail for those who have received citations in the Tarrant County area. While he holds court in a court room downtown, he sometimes also works from inside the city jail where judges accept pleas around the clock. In a city in which over 200,000 citations are issued each year, it’s no wonder there is a need for night court and the 24/7 services like that at the jail. The more serious crimes and repeat offenders are channeled to the Tarrant County court system rather than to the circuit for the city of Ft. Worth. I don’t know much about the structure of the legal system in terms of how criminals move through the process, so this was an interesting conversation. Lucy and Melissa mainly interacted with my son as he was working through his activity book, so I missed that part of the conversation at our table.

My father and I also chatted a bit about technology, and he mentioned that the new version of Dragon Naturally Speaking, a program that automatically types what you say, is a significant upgrade from previous versions, especially when used with a quality microphone. He recommended a brand called “Know Brainer.” It runs about $150 and is an aftermarket adaptation of a Radio Shack microphone. This would be cool as I could just speak my blog entries, letters, e-mail, syllabi, and whatever, instead of having to type it. I’ve tried this program in the past, but found myself frustrated with having to edit the text when it confused words like “in,” “an,” and “end.” This new version touts itself as being 20% more accurate than the previous version.

After dropping Raul and Lucy off at the Courtyard by Marriot hotel, Melissa and I chatted about how it seemed odd that the weekend graduation had finally arrived. I commented to Melissa that tonight was like the outer bands of a long-expected hurricane finally reaching shore. I think my outlook for this weekend is more positive than this metaphor of natural disaster suggests, but there is still an edge of anxiety for me given that I’m the center of attention for this whole event. I guess I wouldn’t make a good king. King Raul’s. Sounds like a Creole restaurant in New Orleans, or something. Off to bed. Tomorrow is already here.

Canisters, Coffee, and Cucumbers

I spent a couple hours this morning downloading and installing the new Office 2007 suite. What a nice upgrade, especially graphically! If you attend a university where you get the upgrade for free, then go for it. IU Kokomo students can download it at http://www.iuware.indiana.edu/. More on this at some other point.

Friday also found us doing the last minute preparations for the reception tomorrow at our club house and the graduation ceremony at Purdue on Sunday. I did my regular vacuuming this morning with our yellow Dyson, which I can’t say enough about. I’m not convinced that the Dyson is any better than the Kirby we already had, but it sure is more fun to use, and this explains why I go out of my way to use it on a daily basis. It’s kind of like what Alton Brown of the Food Network said regarding what the best chef knife is to use: “The best knife is the one that feels comfortable in your hand, because that is the one you will most often use.” Another feature of the Dyson that amuses me is the transparent canister that enables me to see what I have sucked up. But enough about vacuums.

Raul Matthew and I headed out when the low oil indicator light on the dashboard went off, so we switched cars and headed first to Panera Bread to check on ordering some coffee jugs. I saw Tara Lancaster working the counter, but I didn’t recognize her at first because I was in my own little world (very rare!), so she probably thought that I totally blew her off. Hi, Tara. :) Unfortunately, Panera didn’t have the type of large, 100+ ounce container available at Krispy Kreme for only $9.99 (with a dozen glazed donuts tossed in for free) but only a much smaller box that reportedly (according to what some customers had told the cashier) amounted to 6-8 cups of java, and this for $11.99. So, I went about finding a Plan B.

We stopped in at Qdoba to pick up lunch, and I was surprised and delighted to find that they had finally expanded their menu to include some type of Mexican gumbo. I got the steak version, and it was excellent. In my opinion it’s the best food offering that the chain has going for it at present. A few more such additions and the restaurant might raise itself to the level of a Chipotle’s. While there, I also chatted in line with Cayce and Michael from IU Kokomo. Congrats to Cayce for joining the Honor’s Program, which just got a major upgrade by her addition.

Later we headed out to the Marsh on Washington to pick up a few more items, and I learned from my cashier that thefts had skyrocketed in the store since Marsh added the liquor aisle a few months ago. Interesting. I have personally witnessed two shoplifting incidents in the Kroger down the street. Both of those occasions took place about midnight, and one involved two women, a full cart of groceries, and a beat-up blue get away car. The other incident involved some dude in his early 20s who was drinking energy drinks and then leaving the empty cans behind the glass doors of the frozen food section.

These incidents reminded me of two accounts related to me by an officer in Bartow, Florida. In 1984ish, the police were called to the Publix grocery store when some dude flipped out and started randomly launching cucumbers at people. For over 20 years now, I’ve often wondered about how fun it would be to see cucumbers soaring through the air, tumbling end over bumpy end, as people scurried for cover. If l ever lose my mind, you’ll probably read a similar account in the local newspaper. Hopefully, I’ll still have a good throwing arm. The thought of Randy Johnson hurling a 96 m.p.h. fast cucumber makes me smile. On the same day, across the street at the Winn Dixie, an old guy was spotted with blood trickling down his head. When workers attended to the old man, they removed his hat to find a steak on his bald head. I guess he didn’t think the steaks were high enough, or something.

We also stopped by Big Lots, taking a quick peek into the Second Time Around sports equipment store in that same corner. The place was crammed with treadmills, etc., but it was hard to see them given the thick layer of cigarette smoke hanging in the air. Now there is a marketing nightmare! At Big Lots we found a black thermos with a pump that will be perfect for the coffee setup during tomorrow’s reception.

My father, Raul Canez, and my step-mom, Lucy, will be flying in tonight from Ft. Worth, Texas, and it will be great to see them again. My father has a law practice in Ft. Worth and has also been appointed as a judge. Lucy teaches at a Montessori school in the area and is an advanced yoga instructor, something she has been doing for probably 30 years, I’m guessing.

My mom, Bonita Mosley, will fly into Indy from Florida tomorrow afternoon. She is an art instructor at Lakeland Christian School in central Florida, the same school I graduated from. Unfortunately, my dad, Michael, won’t be able to make the graduation festivities as he is heading up a construction project for the Alcoa company down in Jamaica. I guess pictures will have to do for now.

My in-laws, Dale and Carol Byrom will also be coming up tomorrow to help host the reception. My mother-in-law, Carol Byrom, has done a lot of work in preparation for this reception, including making a graduation cake. Making cakes is one of her specialties, and she had done a lot of weddings in the past. The family has also scheduled time at 5:30 PM tomorrow to give me some gifts, and then the reception will start at 6:00 PM. I’m not really sure how many people will attend, but I’m guessing about 50 total including maybe 20 students from IU Kokomo. It will be great to see all who come.

It’s time to use the Hoover SteamVac to clean up a jelly donut spill on the carpet. Really, I’m not always this domesticated. I'm heading out in 15 minutes to hunt for deer with my bare hands.

Out of Town for Cap and Gown

While Melissa remained behind in Kokomo to continue her secret work for the upcoming weekend, Raul Matthew and I headed to Follett’s Purdue West bookstore to pick up my cap and gown for graduation. I hadn’t expected to pay anything—silly me—but I’m hoping the $45 I shelled out will be the last expense of my formal education. By this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if I have to pay a fee for my diploma during the graduation ceremony itself!

With cap and gown in hand, we headed to the McDonalds near the Tippecanoe Mall. This was my son’s culinary choice, although I would rather have gone to any of the ethnic restaurants near campus. That’s one thing I miss about being in a more diverse community—the smell of ethnic food. Nonetheless, we headed to McD’s. My son said, “After a good meal we can head to Toys-R-Us.” I’ve never heard “good meal” and McDonalds mentioned in the same sentence, but I guess it’s a matter of perspective. This particular McDonalds had a cool kids section, so we ended up playing foosball and several video games such as dirt bike racing, air hockey, and tennis.

With the “good meal” behind us, we headed to the Barnes and Noble where my relatively new Columbia coat set off the security device at the front door—something that has happened a few times lately. With the alarm chirping in my wake, I headed straight to the customer service counter to explain that I had nothing on me—just to cover myself because I knew it would likely go off as I left. When the alarm went off AGAIN as I entered the music section inside the store, the clerk there asked me if my coat was new, and demagnetized a security tag inside the coat for me. I had a $50 gift card from my grandmother, so I began looking for a couple of DVDs. I was leaning toward getting a production of Puccini’s Turandot filmed in Beijing, but I wanted to read some reviews of this recording before forking over the $34.99. There was also a $19.99 Australian production of Pucinni’s La Boheme that is good, but the storyline is depressing. So, I skipped it.

I also was tempted to get Godfred Reggio’s Powaqqatsi and Koyaanisqatsi films, both of which are artistic commentaries on the fast pace of contemporary life in juxtaposition to traditional ways of tribal cultures. Both movies in this twin-pack featured the mesmerizing musical scores of the minimalist composer, Philip Glass. I was first exposed to Glass’s work during the last weekend of my freshman year in college. I had just been dumped earlier that day by my first serious girlfriend, and I found myself disinterested in sleep that night. My roommate and good friend from high school loaded his soundtrack of Pawaqqatsi into the boom box, and I passed the hours thinking deep thoughts as I looked out the dorm window and into the shadowy fog of the dismal night air. I went years without ever putting the Glass’s score and Reggio’s movie together, but I finally watched the movie about a year ago. It used to be that whenever I heard just a single bar from that soundtrack my emotional state would head south at warp speed.

We then went to Toys-R-Us across the road for 10 minutes (I set my watch), and then briefly over to the mall where we went to only the John Deere store. This was just a temporary store for the holiday shopping season, so the red neon lights that criss-crossed the metal ceiling seemed more than a few barns away from the farming theme and much more in synch with some edgy fashion shop that no doubt used to be there.

Our final stop was at Krispy Kreme, which has turned into my favorite place in Lafayette. To me, the place represents victory over the Ph.D. process as I stopped there to pick up coffee and donuts for my committee so they would have something to snack on during the defense of my prospectus and final dissertation. The next time I go there, I plan to buy one of their coffee mugs to keep around the office, more as a symbol than anything. Granted, it ain’t no coat of arms, but it’s something meaningful nonetheless. Come to think of it, I am planning on developing some type of symbol for me. Why not?

The Baptists and the Blood

I had a totally bizarre dream last night in which I returned to my hometown of Bartow, Florida, to take pictures inside First Baptist Church, the place I attended from 1980-1986. This was noteworthy for me as I have an intensely strong, psychological desire to venture back to various places I’ve lived just to take digital pictures. You know, of schools, houses, stores, etc.. I’m not sure why this is, but it just is. Returning to Hialeah, Florida, where I lived from 1978-1980 is probably the place I most want to return to, but Google Earth is holding me over in the meantime.

In the dream, I found myself inside FBC with my digital camera. It was a Wednesday night in my dream, and that’s when the church would serve the weekly dinner that preceded the midweek service. The church building itself was constructed in 1925 and seated about 600 people on its beautifully finished oak pews that curved gently toward the front of the sanctuary. It had a wrap-around balcony that sat between the upper and lower sections of stained glass windows. There was also a 37-rank Mohler pipe organ in the front of the sanctuary with 427 pipes exposed in two console boxes that were mounted on both sides of the baptistry. The church itself has an interesting history, and one of its former pastors is Dr. Charles Stanley, who is now pastor of FBC in Atlanta. I’m sure you’ve at some point seen his “In Touch” TV program as you have flipped through the cable lineup. I always wondered if the pastors after Stanley were jealous when many in the congregation would rush back home on Sunday nights to catch Stanley’s TV broadcast.

Bartow itself has a colorful history as it was the first major white settlement in the state of Florida built to defend settlers against the Seminole uprisings that were coming from the southern part of the state. This “city of oaks and azaleas” was originally named Ft. Blount, but it was later renamed in honor of the first Confederate general to die during the Civil War. The town itself is relatively small—about 15,000—but at one point it had the highest per-capita income in the country, at least that is what I’ve heard over the years. It’s not too hard to believe because there are a large number of historic mansions along its oak-lined streets (although there are fewer oaks than before given that the eyes of 3 hurricanes in 2005 passed over Polk County).

The main industry in the county has been citrus, phosphate mining, and cattle. One of my most vivid memories was playing Dixie Youth League baseball on manicured fields as the sweet smell of burnt orange rinds wafted through the warm summer evening air. (That’s what the orange juice plants would do with the rinds—burn them, and they smelled great. It’s better than the smell of the Staley plant in Lafayette!).

All that to say that I’m back home and with my digital camera in hand. My imagination gave me a high-definition experience inside the church, but for the sake of time and space, I’ll describe just a few observations. First, the sanctuary itself was about 3 times larger than what I remember it being in real life. This struck me as odd, even in my dream, as the places of our childhood are usually perceived as being smaller when viewed later in life. The sanctuary in my dream would seat 1,500 easily if the traditional pews had still been in place. What shocked me more than the size increase was the layout of the main floor. Although some oak pews were in place—there was a section of pews in the front and center that had obnoxiously thick red cushions on them—the remainder of the main floor had been transformed into various arrangements featuring oak dining sets. Most of the dinning tables were standard height and were pushed together in groups of 4 or 6 tables, but in the section immediately behind the oak pews, there were several clusters of bar-height chairs and tables that spread across the width of the sanctuary.

Although I haven’t been back to the church in 20 years, I was struck with the postmodern significance of this physical rearrangement, despite the use of the traditional oak wood in the new furniture. Rather than having church members face the front of the sanctuary, they were now oriented toward one another. In other words, the fellowship of believers had taken precedence over any proclamations from the pulpit, which by the way, is a nation-wide trend at present. So, this was a kind of illustration of the decline of expository preaching in churches and the rise of the legitimacy of the average person in the pew when it came to interpreting and applying the teachings of scripture. I’ve been thinking a lot about this issue over the last few months, so it’s interesting how this theme worked itself into my dream via an architectural metaphor.

I had only taken a couple of pictures when I noticed that my camera was not functioning properly. In dream-like fashion, the icons on my view finder were in the wrong place, and even worse, I found that I had only 6 images left. I could have taken at least a 100. At least. So I made my way up to the platform area to get one final picture that looked over the pulpit and toward the congregation. As I lined up my shot, I saw that a few people had now congregated into the pews in the center section. They were just standing there, talking, and seemed oblivious to my presence. As I framed my image, I became annoyed that there were now two white marble slabs extending from the sides of the pulpit outward to a distance of about 10 feet. They also ran from the floor all the way to the ceiling. They were like giant, marble blinders for anyone in the pulpit. Being self-conscious because of my new group of onlookers in the pews, I snapped my final shot, but only to find the flash icon on my viewfinder had turned into a brilliant hue of red and that a slow rain of virtual blood drops began to pour down over the freshly captured image on my viewfinder.

Then I awoke.

Shopping for my Graduation Party

Raul Matthew and I went shopping for chips, dip, trail mix, and a bunch of other stuff for my graduation party on Saturday. We stopped by Aldi in hopes of getting some cheap chips and dip, but I found that the chips were more than what I see at Wal-Mart or Kroger, and they didn’t have any dip, so we left. That’s wasn’t so easy, however, because the store’s only way of escape was the lone open checkout aisle—and that was clogged with big bottoms and bulky boxes, so navigating through this final obstacle was a major challenge. I can’t help but guess that this setup might be in violation of some fire code.

The Deals store in front of Wal-Mart was no better, although I did run into Aaron Pitzer who was stocking some Christmas items. Get it—Christmas items, stocking? Never mind.

So we ended up getting most of our things from Wal-Mart after all. I am proud to report that I resisted the temptation to put 3 cans of fruit cocktail in Cassie Myer’s bread aisle. I walked away, but it wasn’t the easiest thing since sliced bread. Sorry.

Then we headed to Kohls to look for three bowls to place trail mix in. I looked for Charles Allison, but didn’t see him this time around, so I wasn’t able to stand 3 feet from him and page for help in the men’s section as I did last time. Oh well. I found some interesting bowls at Kohls, but I didn’t want to part with over $30 for what we really didn’t need and might not use again, at least not on a regular basis. At TJ Maxx, I found 6 smaller bowls for only $2 each, so I got those instead, along with a couple bottles of the mango habanero sauce that is a great deal at $3.99 a bottle. It’s great stuff!!! I’ve made a similar sauce from scratch using a Bobby Flay recipe, but I’m too lazy to think about making it right now.

I thought about making the trip over to Follet’s Purdue West bookstore at Purdue to pick up my graduation robe for the ceremony on Sunday, but decided to stay home tonight and make the trip tomorrow. Besides, Micah Quick will have a better chance of once again seeing my vintage Lincoln gracing Purdue’s campus.

The Future of Podcasting at IU Kokomo

I attended a fascinating online presentation about the technical aspects of podcasting. This was part of a monthly faculty training series that I try to attend that is entitled, “2nd Wednesdays at Noon.” This was a virtual meeting, which means that those of us physically meeting at IU Kokomo were joined via the Internet with several other institutions and individuals. We formed a virtual network that allowed the virtual attendees to interact with a team of presenters. We had 4 presenters today, one from Ball State and another from the Ivy Tech campus in Ft. Wayne, I think. I had to duck out of this meeting early to attend another one, so I didn’t catch the names and locations of the other two presenters.

The highlight of the presentation for me was to see what Ball State University was doing in terms of having a group of students blog their way through college. Check out http://www.bsu.edu/reallife/ to “follow the lives of 12 Ball State students.” It’s pretty cool. As you move your curser across the main image on the top of this page, the students will walk Beatles-like across a street on campus. You can get to their blogs by clicking on any of the walking students. These students are given free reign in terms of what they want to blog about, and this contributes to a level of authenticity and street cred. I think I heard that this project is in its second year. In the first year, 7 of the 12 students were from the Honors Program, but I think this year’s crop of bloggers is more like the typical BSU student.

I think this is the type of engaging technological experience that would be perfect for giving voice to the creative expressions of our communication majors here at IU Kokomo. In the long run, student bloggers could play a key role in marketing the entire institution, but it might be better to start small. Personally, I would hope that our official bloggers would get some form of monetary compensation, tuition remission, etc. If you help us successfully market the school and our enrollment jumps because of you, then you should share in the increase. Anyway, we have a number of highly creative communication majors who would make great bloggers. One of my colleagues mentioned Mike Glassburn’s name when I mentioned the podcasting possibilities, and I couldn’t agree more. I could see Mike posting not just pictures, but potentially videos from his concerts as well. At BSU, these students are given (I think) a Sanyo camcorder that can record video in MP3 in addition to taking digital pictures (5.1 megapixels). BSU paid around only $400 for these cameras, so it would be cool if we could secure funding to put 3 or 4 of these in the hands of our students and turn them loose to be creative in their blogging.

By the way, there is a growing number of us at IU Kokomo who are catching a vision of what our campus can become, and technology will be a key part of that. Not just technology for the sake of having techy stuff on campus, but technology connected with the academic experience of our students. Instead of a blog, maybe you would like to be part of a TV show that runs on the new K-GOV channel on Insight Cable? That’s a possibility. I am also working with our outstanding staff in Information Technology to develop an electronic portfolio system that will revolutionize how your work is evaluated and assessed. Plus, I’m also working with Catherine Barnes and others to bring the advising process out of the Stone Age. More on this later.

I plan on cranking up the podcasting machine by Fall 07, if not earlier. I’m going to need a ton of storage space, however, as I would like to post downloadable videos instead of just audio files (technically, “vodcasting,” I think). This means that if you miss one of my classes, then you will be able to download and watch one of my lectures on your iPod, computer, etc..

Minda Douglas and I have a number of ideas on how to overhaul the physical campus at IU Kokomo including expanding the space for student lounging and overhauling the concrete courtyard in the Main Building into something student-friendly. A café out there would be a nice addition, just for starters. These physical changes are not likely to take place in the near future without a flood of capital from generous donors. However, we can immediately begin to overhaul the virtual world of IU Kokomo.

If you would like to be highly visible in terms of maintaining a blog or being on K-GOV TV, then please let me know. We are going to do a lot more to make our students visible within our region, and these activities would look great on a resume.

Rush Limbaugh is, Little Tortilla Boy

Um, the following is an adaption of Pablo Franciso's Little Tortilla Boy. My apologies in advance.

MOVIE VOICE: In the world of broadcasting...you must fight to survive. Rush Limbaugh sold tortillas on the air. But the newly-empowered Democrats wanted in.

HUGO CHAVEZ (D-MA): “I heard that Diablo on the radio yesterday and my car still smells like Sulfur. I want him and his tortillas...DEAD!”

MOVIE VOICE: He had one chance. And his chance was to fight back.

RUSH LIMBAUGH: "These are MY tortillas, not those of illegal immigrants, and I'm not going to give them up without making a profit! I'm telling you now, and trust me on this folks, Michael J. Fox is behind this shakedown."

MOVIE VOICE: These tortillas were about to get burned.

KEANU REEVES: “We burned the tortillas, dude.”

MOVIE VOICE: Experience the romance.

ANN COULTER: "My sweet Rushy Poo, who were those men with the donkey? What did they want?"

MOVIE VOICE: Experience the adventure.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: "Listen to me Rush! You have to get out of here, Howard Dean and John Kerry are trying to take your tortillas!”

HOWARD DEAN: “We will take them to New Hampshire! We will take them to South Carolina! Then we’ll take them to Arizona and New Mexico, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan! And we're going to take them to Massachusetts! And North Carolina! And Missouri! And Arkansas! And Connecticut! And New York! And Ohio! YAAAAARRRHHH!!!”

JOHN KERRY: “And they’ll also end up in Iraq.”

MOVIE VOICE: Double the excitement.

SALMA HAYEK: “We have both flour and corn tortillas.”

MOVIE VOICE: Triple the cover up.

BILL CLINTON: "I did not have tortillas with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."

MOVIE VOICE: With music by Aerosmith.

“Sweeeeeeeeeeeet, tortiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillas…”

MOVIE VOICE: And cameos by Chris Tucker…

CHRIS TUCKER: “Don’t you EVER touch Limbaugh’s tortillas!”

MOVIE VOICE: …and the GEICO caveman.

CAVEMAN: “No, thanks. I don’t have much of an appetite right now.”

MOVIE VOICE: One man. One Solution.

THUMP THUMP, THUMP THUMP, THUMP THUMP, THUMP THUMP...

MOVIE VOICE: Rush Limbaugh this November is...

RUSH LIMBAUGH: The feminazis are coming! NOOOOOO!!!!!

MOVIE VOICE: ...Little Tortilla Boy.

(Pause)

"I'm Mark Foley, and I approve this message."