Thesis Defense

Please think of me on Monday. I will be defending my thesis. 170 pages that can be summed up in 30 seconds. But I am not worried, because I know something they don't....I am not left handed.

Tommi-gone

The voters have spoken in a very close race. 6-5 in favor of the right one. There was one destroyed ballot with "anonymous" voting. (Never listen to anonymous unless they put their name in the text)
Thank you for all your voting.

I ain't never seen an elephant fly

Hey, Check out what Brian Tysdal and I did when we were down in Orlando. If you are ever down visiting our Orlandonians, make sure to go to SkyVenture.

Short MP3

I have recorded a short mp3 Idea that you can put in the mix of songs on your Ipod. Just a simple idea that hopefully makes us think.

Click here to listen or right click and save target

Also, don't forget to vote for which Tommi-Lyn to kick off the island.

Survivor

Some have asked why there are two pictures of Tomm-Lyn on this sight. No, she does not have two different sites. Actually, I made a face button of her, and then she sent me her own picture, so now niether one of us can decide which one to delete. It is like voting on which one gets voted off the island. Well, that is what it has come down to. I will remove one picture on friday depending on your votes in the comments. So which Tommi will it be.

Face Buttons

Friends and students. You may notice that there are many faces along the right side of this blog. These are face buttons. They are links to others blog sites. If your name has no face button, then I need to get a picture of you. If you have a favorite, then send it to scott.francis@sasktel.com and I will set it up for you. Note, the picture for Renee and Tommi-Lyn was from Renee's flikr account. You need to see her photos if you haven't gone there yet. Renee- I hope it was OK to nab those pictures.

Why can't we all just get along?

This spider waited in her web at my doorframe for two weeks last summer. I called her Charlotte.

In an ideal world, everybody would look out for each other’s interests. We would never prey on another’s weakness. We would live happily ever after and there would be free pastries on Tuesdays.

In reality, death, pain and torture have always been, are now and forever will be. As long as there are parasites and Carnivores, there will always be thieves and terrorists.

Within our society, regrettably, there are careers built on entrapment. Salespersons entice us to purchase beyond our means. Recruitment officers promise that the army is fun. There is even an entire cottage industry that makes and sells Chinese finger puzzles. (You know, those woven tubular things that you put your fingers into and then cant get them out of.)

More sinister are the traps that are baited with the three lures irresistible to humans, namely; money, sex and power. To think we are immune to falling only sets us up for trouble. The only place where these tempters can't touch us is six feet under. We must be innocent as doves and wise as serpents. Ignorance is never an excuse to be let off the hook.

Said the spider to the fly, “Oh dear, you did not know that there was a web here? You did not know that getting trapped would mean the loss of freedom, stinging paralysis, and eventual life sucking torture while you are still conscious? Oh? Well, please forgive the inconvenience, just sign this form and then you are free to go.”

You are going out for reading break. Have a great time. You deserve a rest. Yet beware of the potential snares set for students on spring break; Pornography, sexual...stuff, shameful media, drunkenness, recklessness, distraction, and the love of status.

Like a fly stuck in a bottle that finally finds the opening, a student can go ripping out of the college greenhouse with all the joys of freedom, straight into charlotte's web. You cannot see snares and webs, but you know where they might be. Just stay away. If you are caught, squirm, wiggle, and fight until you get loose.

My dear students, Be innocent as doves, and wise as serpents.

Strike Hard

I have only to let myself go! So I have said to myself all my life - so I said to myself in the far-off days of my fermenting and passionate youth. Yet I have never fully done it. The sense of it - of the need of it - rolls over me at times with commanding force: it seems the formula of my salvation, of what remains to me of a future. I am in full possession of accumulated resources - I have only to use them, to insist, to persist, to do something more - to do much more than I have done. The way to do it - to affirm one's self "sur la fin" - is to strike as many notes, deep, full and rapid, as one can. All life is - at my age, with all one's artistic soul the record of it - in one's pocket, as it were.
Go on, my boy, and strike hard... Try everything, do everything, render everything - be an artist, be distinguished to the last.

- Henry James (novelist) -Discovered in his journal, written in his later years, before he wrote his best works.

Creature Franchising

Kyle and Kathy getting windexed

Franchising couples is one of my favourite jobs. Yet sometimes you wonder how on earth the couple ever got together. In this case I wonder about the potential of a herbivore and a carnivore. This was the first time that anybody ever go dressed up for their Franchising. Their choice of attire leads me to suspect that there really is kryptonite in the Eston water supply. Let this be a lesson to you ladies. Beware of rabbits on train tracks.

For the benefit of non-FGBC folk, franchising is the name that the students gave to the meeting that a new couple has with the dean of students as they become "official." It usually includes some suggestions on dating etiquette, recommendations for restaurants in town, and general inspiration for romance. We like to consider Eston the "Paris of the North."

Patron of Retreats

There are very few people
who realise what God would make of them
if they abandoned themselves into his hands,
and let themselves be formed by his grace. (St Ignatius)