Friday, June 20, 2008

Melissa Etheridge - Revival Tour

My wife bought tickets to go see Melissa Etheridge for the June 19th concert in Jacksonville, FL. I said wtf, how bad could it be, lets do it. So we went down to the landing for dinner, dine on some fine Italian, the best so far in Jax, but mind you that there just aren't that many Italian restaurants in Jax, and don't get me started on the pizza situation.

I digress, the concert was very revitalizing as marketed by the title. I never thought I would enjoy a Melissa Etheridge concert, but I actually would venture to say that this one was one of the best, if not the best concert experience I have had. It had a very unplugged feel to it, yet all the mechanics of the typical rock band were present. She was very low key, yet her voice was as powerful as it was 20 years or so ago. I think what made this different was that there was some story telling involved. Melissa paused between songs to tell the audience about the song and where she was in her life, both personal and professional, at the time which led to the motivation for the lyrics. I found this type of performance refreshing and honest.

She concluded with her battle for cancer and living with no regrets. She encourage the audience to look deep within themselves and ensure that they live their lives as they would want, because there is only this one.

These messages hit very close to home. We moved to Jax to experience a better live but is a better live a financial statement or a more relax and sedentary one?

The bottom line is that we have made a great home down in the Jacksonville area. We have done well economically as well, but no better than we were doing in CT, the biggest change is the quality time I get to have with my wife. We have now pick up golfing together and sharing more moments together. I think that's what life is about experiencing joy with the one you love and choose to spent your years with. Intellectual curiosity is also another factor to consider, as humans our number one gift is the gift of learning and we should strive to learn at least one new thing a day, whether is to expand and promote growth in your career or to learn a new technique to improve upon your hobby, is just crucial to never stop learning. Once you decide you can't learn anymore, then you might as well select your grave next.

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Friday, June 08, 2007

How to get into college

A while back I remember watching a film by with a similar title as this post, How I Got Into College, at the time I thought this was a fairly cheesy movie with a young man stressing over SAT scores.

With today's technology Anthony Edwards character would not have stressed so much about the test and perhaps would have focused his attention more on improving his chances with the girl.

All this pondering came about from reading a story on Reuters where they detailed how three Chinese men design a low tech, by today's standard, way to help a student cheat in the very competitive university entrance exam. Apparently 10 million Chinese high school students compete for just 5.7 million available university sits in all of China.

The plan was simple, use microphones and ear pieces to communicate questions and answers between one student and others hire to sit outside the building with computers handy and ready to provide answers.

Good thing we don't yet have this problem in the states, then again, me being a college professor, I would probably be making much more if we had so many more students in the classroom.

I haven't have the need catch students cheating in exams in my class before since all my test are electronic and questions are individually randomize. However, a while back I heard of other professors having problems with students text messaging answers via their mobile phones.

The bottom line is that we live in a very competitive world where people are always designing new ways to get ahead. I can't say I blame the fellow trying to make his way into college, but I thing it would be easier for the person to apply themselves to studying instead of designing ways to cheat themselves into college. After all, if they have to cheat to get in there, what will they do to ensure a successful college career?

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