What's the Haps?

So nothing is really going on at work. We are in the second day of class and this starts the slow period before the recruiting season begins. I am enjoying this slowness, but I hate it at the same time because it gives me time to worry about things, and that is never good. I am scheduled to take the GRE on September 13th, so I am preparing for it and worrying about not making the score that I need to get into my program.

I don't know if I have posted this or not, but I have decided to pursue a Masters of Higher Education. It seems like I will be at UNT for a while, so I figured that I might as well settle in for the long haul. As a part of that, I need to earn a Masters degree in something, so I figured why not learn more about the field that I am in. A couple of my co-workers have been talking to me about the program and I have finally been recruited. I am hoping to being in Spring 2009, but I have to get a few things in order, such as GRE scores and letters of recommendation.

For the letters of recommendation, I have to get a recommendation from a professor. It would figure that the one professor that I actually met with more than once and somewhat established a relationship has moved on to another college. I emailed her almost 2 weeks ago to see if she would do it and she has not responded. Now, I think that I am going to ask my professor that I had this summer at Collin County. I am a little nervous about that because I never met her in person (as the course was a WebCT class) so I don't know if she has enough to go on to feel like she can give me a recommendation. Also, some of the writing that I gave her during the semester wasn't my absolute best, and she does not know that I already have a Bachelors degree, so I hope that will not count against me. (For those keeping count, I took Introduction to Mass Communications this summer because I was bored and didn't have anything else better to do. Also it is because I am a nerd and I am intrigued by the TV industry right now.) So we will see how that goes..

Travel season this year begins on September 15th with Dallas I. My travel schedule is as follows:

Sept 15 - 19: Dallas I

Sept 22 - 26: Dallas II

Sept 29 - Oct 3: Gulf Coast

Oct 6 - 10: Houston I

Oct 27 - 31: San Antonio

Nov 3-6: Professional Conference in Corpus Christi

Nov 10 - 13: Panhandle

Nov 17 - 21: Fort Worth

Dec 1 - 5: Austin

I am excited to get out of the office right now. Traveling is fun, draining, but fun. We will see what crazy things I can encounter this year..

Yay for holidays!

So there have been some talks around campus that we may not get the usual week surrounding Christmas and New Years off. I looked on the Human Resource calendar today and I found out that he do get the week off! I would have been really mad if I could not have the week off for Christmas. We are an educational institution and there is no reason for us to be on campus. Yes, technically, we do get backed up during the holidays in processing files, but we need a break sometime. Plus, how is one expected to visit family members on a few days?

In other news, not much is going on. At work, we have begun a calling campaign to help remind students to sign up for orientation. After work last night, I hung out with Jessica, Jennifer, and Jaqueline and I could barely talk. It was not pleasant. I was still glad to hang out with the girls because I have not seen them in a long time, especially Jax and Jessica.

Pretty soon, I will know my recruiting schedule, so I can start making travel plans for the fall. I am excited. I know that I have only been in the office for a handful of weeks now, but I am ready to get back out on the road and get away from the telephone. I do not like to talk on the phone, especially when it is the same question over and over and over and over again. It just starts to get annoying after a while. Today I get to escape for the afternoon because there is a program at the Fort Worth Convention Center. I just hope that the rain holds off until after the event. I don't want to carry viewbooks through the rain. That will be no bueno. We shall see how it goes though..

Homework

Last night, I did my first section of homework since I left school in May 2007. I have to say it has been quite a while. My keyboard at home is much different than my keyboard at work, so needless to say, I made quite a bit of spelling errors that I had to go back and correct. Maybe my computer is trying to say that I need a natural keyboard at home... For fun, I am taking a course at the local community college about the Media. It is COMM 1307, Introduction to Mass Communications. It is a 10 week course and my first assignment is due next Tuesday.

Last night I studied all there is to know about advertising. We had to read a chapter in the book and then answer some questions that went along with the book and also involved me checking out some ad agencies and choosing one that I would prefer to use to advertise my imaginary product. One company that I looked at was Fallon. I chose them to do my ad. They have produced many of the ads that we have seen on TV, specifically the Citi card commercials where you have the victim of credit card theft and there is a voice over of the criminal talking about what they are going to buy with the credit card. It is one of my favorites.

I also learned that advertising is a billion dollar industry. I read that and was shocked. I guess that we just don't think about how much money it is to purchase time on the air waves.

So far I am enjoying the class. It is what I have been reading about in my spare time, so it is worth it. How I am going to use this credit, I am not sure, but it can just support my habit for off the wall knowledge.

Before I started homework, I finished up a series that I borrowed from the UNT Media Library. It is a BBC show called "The Robinsons". It stars Martin Freeman (Tim from BBC's The Office). It is about the youngest son (Freeman) in a family of 3 who is struggling to find out what his purpose in life is. His family is highly dysfunctional and it is a really good show. It only lasted for 6 episodes, so there is not much to it, but by British standards, it had a full run. Lately, I have been watching all that Martin Freeman has performed in. On Sunday, I watched "The Good Night" where Martin Freeman played someone similar to his character in "The Robinsons". For some reason, these roles are really intriguing to me right now.

On tap for tonight, Public Relations!

P.S. I feel about how he looks right now.... :)

Summer showers combined with a cold front = perfection

It was so beautiful last night! I had to drop off books at the library so they would be counted on-time so I made a little trip to the Lewisville Library around 10 pm. The temperature was 72 degrees so I drove with the windows down. And I am glad that I did. It was so relaxing! I had the windows down, radio up and nothing in the world could be wrong. It was great!

Before my excursion to the library, I watched a mocumentry called "Chalk". It is about new teachers who have between 1 hour and 3 years of experience. It was really good. It was executive produced by Morgan Spurlock, the "Supersize Me" guy. "Chalk" give you an idea what first year teachers experience and some of the frustrations that they can encounter. From un-ruly students to administrators who are not as helpful as they can be. They had a couple PSA's in the special features section. One was really funny, it had this teacher and all you could see is his shirt and tie. He is walking down the hallway, waving to people. He walks into the classroom and starts his lesson. He suddenly drops his chalk. He bends down to pick it up and he is wearing short shorts. A sign on the screen says "That's just wrong. Students, please respect the dress code". It was funny. Unfortunately it is not on Youtube to share, but something to investigate if you watch the DVD.

The season finale of ABC Family's Greek was great also. Of course it was a roller coaster ride of "will they, won't they" but it ended how it should have. Now I will have to wait a whole summer to know what will happen between the Casey-Cappy-Rebecca love triangle.

With all of that excitement, I guess I should start working on my class now...

Happenings of the past few days

So I have finished moving my stuff to my new apartment. Now that everything is settled for the most part and 90% of the boxes are gone, it is starting to feel like home. There are some things that I still need to do: hang pictures, fold clothes, finish unpacking boxes in my room. It is not too bad.

Now that I have my stuff in there, it is not as small anymore. It is just the right size. I am still trying to find a place to put the lids to my Tupperware containers. I have no more drawers or cabinet space available, so I guess for now I am going to keep them in a box on the floor next to the kitchen. Mostly everything else, if I am do not use the item everyday is going in my massive storage closet. It is so big, it could be an extra room!

Since I do not have cable or Internet yet, I have been watching a lot of DVD's. I just finished a documentary that I borrowed from the library about West Point. It was very interesting. It was filmed in the Fall of 2001/Spring 2002, so it was interesting to see how the cadets responded to the 9/11 tragedy. Most were nervous, but many were ready to leave and go fight.

While I was at Wal-Mart this weekend, I bought season 6 of Roseanne. I used to watch this as a kid and I thought that it would be cool to remind myself of what I watched during childhood. Believe it or not, this season aired in 1993. From the different fashions, you could tell that it was the early 90's. I just could not process the fact that season 6 was in 1993. I would have thought that it was a lot later. As I watched, I remembered the different episodes from the first time that I watched them and where I was when I watched it. It was a nice trip down memory lane. Especially important to this season is that this was the first season that Sarah Chalke plays the role of Becky. I really like Sarah Chalke (and prefer her over the other Becky) so that is why I am starting in the middle of the series.

On tap for tonight is Disc 2 of Roseanne. I am excited. It is cool to flash back and watch shows from the past.

Above is a before picture of my living room. Tomorrow, an after picture.