Name Changes on Campus

New name for college of business more accurately reflects its role at MSU

Murray State University’s college of business and public affairs is now the college of business. Approved by the MSU board of regents at its last meeting, the change was made to reflect the units in the college.

Currently, the college houses six departments that deal with business: accounting; computer science and information systems; economics and finance; journalism and mass communications; management, marketing and business administration; and organizational communication.

Names should be a description of what they identify. The College of Business and Public Affairs did just that. The quote above, from here, is incorrect. The college houses 6 departments, 3 deal with business, and 3 deal with public affairs.

Goodbye Public Ivy

I'm in a pretty foul mood today (but not about this), so I?ll speak plainly. MSU got ripped off by our ?national marketing firm?. (Original blog post here)

Now, they did a pretty good job on the new logo. It's very modern, yet retains the shield (though I heard people had to threaten bodily harm to others to get them to keep that much).
I don't even have much problem with the new tag line, 'your world to explore'. While "Public Ivy" was always striving to sound convincing time and "There's no (cent) in quitting" was just dumb, "your world to explore" sounds like something from EPCOT, and everyone loves Disney World, right? It's hopeful and all-encompassing, not as egotistical as "Public Ivy" but still a grand idea.
The problem I have is with the new tag line logo, destined to be slapped on every bulletin board, cocktail napkin and pencil on campus.


When I first saw it I thought of this elementary education software. Maybe as a grad student I?m too old for this message. It?s my last year in the 18-24 age demographic, so maybe the kids love the star theme. Maybe it will look better on the napkins in real life than it does in my head. Maybe I?m just too hung up on the stars. Maybe I?m just getting too old for this.
I wonder if we'll ever get our rowing team back.

Also;

My boss is burning incense. Getting ready for the Floyd show tonight? Who knows?

since twitter is down

This is a great blog post about John Hughes. Just really awesome.
Here at the lake we are starting up Laser Light Shows, and the first Pink Floyd show is already sold out and reservations are filling up the rest of the nights fast. So if you want to come call 270-924-2020.
I'm actually really happy they are selling out. the planetarium is a pretty awesome place, and hopefully the music lovers will come back for more traditional shows later this year.

Laser light show poster

Laser-Poster, originally uploaded by morndry.

A poster I designed for the upcoming laser shows at the planetarium. 18x24, it doesn't look bad shrunk to 8.5x11. I hope to get a few full size ones once they get back from the printer Friday.

HDR of Rainy

WellsStatue_07277_HDR_b, originally uploaded by Stephen Kerstiens - BNA-Photo.

Found this on Flickr, I really want this shot as my background.
Stephen Kerstiens, I don't know who you are, but good job.

Playing dentist with a gift horse

It's Monday night, and I have just scheduled my first job interview of 2009.
Of course you wont be reading this before Thursday afternoon, and there is a reason for that, but I don't want to spoil the ending.
The job is a year long contract with the Paducah Area Red Cross, paid through Americorps. From what I can tell it's a position designed to set up and streamline their disaster plans. As far as I can tell. The official job description is a bit lacking in specifics, and when I talked to the head of the search committee she seemed to redirect my questions into a catch-all “you'll find out in your training in Louisville” answer.
It seems to be a noble pursuit, as I found out first hand during the January ice storm. Some counties, and I know of Lyon county from first hand experience, had neither updated their disaster plan for many years, run any sort of drills, or in fact had a competent disaster manager.
The job also pays only$ 950 a month, and even if you include the free health and dental still comes out to about $6.5/hour for a 40 hour work week.
Gas, if it stays at todays price, will rack me up $275 a month. That, with my current budget, will mean I will lose around $20 a month. I'm already living on a tight budget, and for my next job I would like to start making some money.
So, even if they offer it to me, I'm not taking this job.
It seems like a fun job, but it just does not work out. So I'm continuing to apply for other positions, and as you read this two more are working their way through the postal system.
And I, while you are reading this, am sitting on a beach on Kentucky lake, with a cooler full of drinks, waiting for my friends to show up and grill out. My time here may be coming to an end, and I may not know where I will be going after this, but right now this is what I need.

Farris Bueller Fight Club theory

Over at Metafilter they are having a discussion on the Farris/Cameron dichotomy. It just really makes me want to see this movie again.

Job search, year 2

It's that time of year again. Soon (in two months) my contract with LBL will be over and I will be out on the cold, lonely streets.
Due to the recent economic downturn the job search might be even worse this year, but I remain hopeful. I'm more experienced than I was last year, have a great portfolio under my belt and am willing to take pretty much any job for a year before going abroad.

So far I've sent out five resumes and/or applications and have yet to hear back from any of them. I have another application on my desk and will be tailoring a resume and letter for that one tonight to send out tomorrow. Once I send that off I'll start looking for another. I hope the next time I have to do this it will be with different scenery.

Spring break

Since I no longer have a spring break, I am going to live vicariously through people who do. So if you are going to be on spring break in the next few weeks I would love to hear some adventures.

12 hours too late

Last night a bunch of us got together and played some Loaded Questions. One of them was "Something you never joke about". My immediate thought was "clowns".
And then, 12 hours later, I find this quote on boingboing from Lon Chaney.
"there's nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight."
Yep, that about sums it up.

bored

Frankly, it gets pretty boring here out at the lake. I?ve been watching the first season of Mad Men (apparently I?m the last one to see it) and getting my computers to use the same Time Machine drive. It took a while but I finally got my powerbook to save to a USB drive connected to my desktop.
This guys site was great help. Now I have the peace of mind that comes with having regular backups.
Hopefully when it warms up some more (it was 28 this morning and is 36 right now) getting out and about will be more enjoyable.

Today is a woot off on woot.com. So far I?ve missed the cool stuff, but if nothing else woot offs give hope to the hopeless, allow the lame to walk, the blind to see and magically turn swords into plows.
It?s also been a pretty fun day at the lake. We?re still recovering from the big ice storm and they finally cleared the path from the houses to the office, so we no longer have to walk through the mud.
The office and the houses are the only buildings with power so far. The maintenance buildings are still running on a generator.
The visitor?s center was supposed to be hooked up to a generator today (it?s underground power lines were heavily damaged by tree roots that got pulled over) but we just found out that won?t be happening. I think the generator caught fire, but I could be wrong.

weather report

11ºF ?!?!
High of 18, low of 2.
I don't really want to leave my house today.

Although I have a beard and the physical area I shave is very small, I still enjoy a new, sharp razor blade. It really feels good.
It might be the aloe strip.