The quote that just made my week:
“Wait…you’re not Chuck…who in the heck are you?”
Full of WIN.
Archive for the ‘Life Logging’ Category
This Made My Week
Thursday, March 4th, 2010Cleaning out the Jetta
Saturday, February 20th, 2010Cleaning out the old car today, I found:
- One more disc golf driver. Sorry, guys. I’ll make it up to you this season.
- Long green drinking straws and their wrappers from Starbucks, used for drinking from a Venti Unsweetened Iced Coffee.
- I was supposed to sign and mail this form back to one of the schools I refereed soccer games for. Sorry about that.
- Verification from an old bank statement, showing the time where I gassed up on at the Shell on White Bridge with butterflies in my stomach–killing time before I went to watch “The Tingler.”
- Inside the door, the tags from the now-favorite quarter-zip olive green sweater I purchased on one of many trips to Target.
- A pile of unread magazines, catalogs and mail from October, which is when I apparently began living out of my car after the hockey season started.
- Quite a lot of little white Jackalope hairs in the trunk that were picked up by my travel bag on a wood floor in Nashville, along with that promotional “backpack” they gave out at a Preds game. Inside was a game program from that night: December 26, 2009. Happy Birthday.
Skating on NHL Ice
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010I celebrated my birthday by skating on the Nashville Predator’s home ice, which was an amazing rush for me as a hockey fan. I’m pretty sore today–no amount of training can help prepare you for ice skating except actually ice skating, which I haven’t done in years. I loved it. I’m so glad I did it…but….the thing is, I almost didn’t do it. I woke up that morning with a rather poor attitude, and when one of my friends wrote to ask if it was my birthday, I responded:
Yes, is it my birthday. I’m trying to be happy about it. Since I’m taking a little twitter and facebook hiatus, I didn’t post these updates this morning:
“Today is my birthday. I started it by not wanting to get out of bed and face the day. That’s probably not a good sign.”
“I swore I’d never be one of those people who freaked out about getting older. I hope this is just some mourning/loss-related anxiety and it goes away soon.”
See? No one likes a Debbie Downer on his birthday. :)
Actually, I do feel better about some things. I have great people in my life. You’re one of them, of course.
As an example: I was planning on coming down to the Sommet Center tonight to skate on the Predator’s home ice, but I forgot my skates at home. My parents and a good friend offered to bring my skates to me here at work and then go with me to Nashville to make sure I did get this little bit of special time in on my birthday. How awesome are the people in my life? I really shouldn’t complain at all.
Long story short: I got my skates delivered to me, and we made the trip to the Sommet Center. Now, I’m so glad we did. It was an experience I will remember forever. Viewing the arena from the ice while zipping around the rink on my old college hockey skates was simply amazing for me as a Predators fan.
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- That’s Me! There were a lot of kids to dodge around.
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- My foot, in my skate, on the center faceoff circle at the Sommet Center.
Chuck Milam’s Seven Secrets of Academic Success at UW-Oshkosh
Thursday, February 11th, 2010I wrote this shortly before I finally graduated from UW Oshkosh, and left it with my fraternity chapter. Recently, Victor discovered it in his archives and sent it back to me. It was fun to read this blast from the past, and I think most of this still holds true today. I do come down on academic advisors pretty hard here, but at the time I had good reason to. Looking back at it now, I will apply this disclaimer: Not all academic advisors are horrible. There was one advisor in the Liberal Studies department that really made all the difference for me in getting me credit for ALL my classes when I returned to school, and she got me on the track to graduation in the shortest time possible. Some of the other advisors that were working at UWO at the time would have done well to have learned from her.
So without further explanation, I present:
Chuck Milam’s Seven Secrets of Academic Success at UW-Oshkosh
This was originally a presentation given in the fall of 1999 to my fraternity pledge class as part of the “Academics” component of The Journey. I speak from experience. I almost failed out of school in 1995, left school to take a job before they could kick me out, and then returned to complete my degree in 1998. Most of what is presented here was learned in my “second go around” from 1998-1999.
1. Go to class. Nothing is more important. No matter how hung over, sick, or just plain tired you are, go to class. Even if you are only semi-conscious, you can at least absorb enough through osmosis to pass the class. You cannot pass a class if you’re not there to learn the material or take the exams.
2. Your advisor is not going to help you. Contrary to popular belief, your advisor is not going to bend over backwards to help you plan your academic career and help you graduate on time. You advisor is most likely only concerned with getting you out of his office so he can get back to his game of computer golf or surfing to college-sluts.com. You are better off consulting with professors or fraternity brothers in your major. Which leads us to point #3:
3. Use your resources. Through the fraternity, you have access to brothers who have “been there” already. They know what professors to take, what professors to avoid and what classes are a guaranteed “GPA booster.” Make use of brothers in your major, especially–they’ll be happy to help you.
4. Don’t fall into the “GPA trap.” In many academic majors, if you drop below a certain minimum GPA, you won’t be able to take upper-level classes. If you can’t get into upper-level classes, you can’t graduate. So, you end up trapped in a vicious cycle, blowing tuition money, accruing useless course credits and not making any real progress toward graduation. If you’re following rule #1, above, this will not be a problem for you.
5. Don’t believe the “Academic Major/GPA Hype.” Since high school, you’ve been told that you have to have a “decent major” and a “decent GPA” (usually 3.0 or better) in order to have any hope of getting a job out of college. This is quite possibly the biggest lie told to students today. Major in something you really are interested in, not something that you think will get you a good job. After you have your degree, an employer isn’t going to care if you majored in business or art. He’s not going to care what your GPA was. All that matters is that you get that degree. After all, it’s why you’re here, right? Right.
6. Everything can be appealed and/or waived. Don’t let academic advisors convince you that you cannot get into the upper-level courses because you are missing one or two classes. (College of Business advisors are notorious for this.) Remember step #2, above? Your advisor could care less if you have to take an extra semester to meet some silly prerequisite requirement. These kinds of things can be waived. Ask for a waiver or an appeal. If you’re not happy with the answers you’re getting from your advisor, go to the department chair, to the dean of the college, the provost, whatever it takes to get what you need done. It is your right as a student (paying customer) to make steady academic progress and graduate on time.
7. Demand the same level of performance from your professors that they demand of you. Don’t tolerate professors who don’t show up for office hours or class, who don’t clearly explain their grading criteria, or who don’t grade consistently. Remember, everyone answers to someone. You can take your complaints to the department chair, to the dean of the college, right on up the chain, just as in step #6, above. Some professors are beyond hope. Avoid them by making sure you consult with others on who to avoid. See #3, above.
Remember these seven simple steps, and you’ll be on the road to graduate “on schedule.”
Some Run to Remember, Some Run to Forget…
Sunday, February 7th, 2010…and I did a little of both yesterday when I completed my very first “official” road race in downtown Nashville. I ran the Nashville Predators Fangtastic 5K, which I would have never thought I would do even a month ago, but now I am so glad I did. I confess at one point, I considered not running, but I decided I had to complete this race no matter what. It was kind of a symbol of being able to push through adversity, even if I was going to go it alone now.
It was just over a month ago on the evening of December 26th when I got the sudden wake-up call that I needed to start doing something to improve my fitness, as well as burn some energy to help clear my head over some things I was working through in my personal life. I got started with the Couch to 5K program, which slowly works you up from walking to running longer and longer intervals. There were several great iPhone apps to help keep me on track as I worked through the program. Even though I was only to Week 4 of the program, I did manage to run most of the race yesterday. I did resort to “speed walking” one uphill when I realized I was walking up it faster than I was jogging it.
Yesterday, right before race time, I remembered about the “Map My Run” service and figured that might be fun to gather data while running the race. I downloaded the app, and it worked great. You can see the map of my run route and even do a 3D video “fly-by” of the route.
According to the official results:
My Gun Time: 33:38
My Chip Time: 33:15
“Gun Time” is the traditional time measurement from the sound of the starting gun to crossing the finish line. It’s more of a what people would think of a race vs. the other runners, i.e. “I crossed the finish line first,” but doesn’t take into account the large crowd at the starting line, which can take 5-10 minutes to clear out. “Chip Time” is measured from when I actually crossed the starting line (I was in the middle of the pack) to when I crossed the starting line.
My overall pace: 10:44. A little slower than the 5:40 miles I used to post in high school, but then again, I was a lot younger and lighter then. I placed 51st out of 75 in my age group (Male 35-59). I placed 675th overall, and If I’m reading the results right, I placed 384th out of all males.
As I ran through downtown Nashville, I passed several landmarks that brought back some memories and helped me come to peace with things. Places such as: The YMCA I almost joined on the very same night I found out things were going to change for good, the road I would have turned down had I bought a house there, and the farmer’s market where we spent some great times shopping for international foods that I rarely got to prepare because of the calorie counts. Running past these places was cathartic for me.
Most importantly, I think I’ve made my peace with Nashville again. I’m looking forward to the next event, and yes, also the next race.
(Re)Opening the Old Cabin
Sunday, January 31st, 2010Since I was snowed in this weekend, I tackled a lot of chores around the house that had been neglected for far too long. See, here’s the thing: For most of the last year, I really haven’t been living on the farm more than perhaps half of the time.
Why? Is not important. Not anymore.
Simply put: Things have changed. I will be spending my time here at home again.
“Home.”
Frankly, it still feels a little strange to call this place home again. Maybe that’s just the cognitive dissonance talking. Just when I was getting comfortable with the idea of calling Nashville “home,” I now find myself back on the farm. Despite my current state of confusion, it is good to know I can always come back. For years, this farm has been a place of refuge and support for my family.
So, with all that explanation and back story out of the way, we now resume our regularly scheduled blog posting.
Faced with a house that had only been lived in at most three to four nights a week for the last few months, I had a lot of work ahead of me. Besides all the usual dusting and decluttering one would expect from a house that had been idle for this length of time, this house brought several extra challenges:
This house is in the middle of a corn/soybean field, and that means…mice. Lots of mice. Back in the fall, the mice had begun to move in when it got colder and after the beans were cut, they full-on invaded. Traps were not enough, so I had to resort to poison. Mice gone, but then I had a lot of “mouse sign” to clean away. With some help from Dad, and a lot of quality time with the Shop Vac, those little bits of nastiness are now taken care of.
I went through the bathroom cabinets and drawers, took everything out and put it on the floor to survey what I had. Wow, that was enlightening…and more than a little embarrassing. I was shocked to discover I had 2-3 of almost everything. Let’s just say I won’t be needing to purchase any shampoo for the next few months. Also, I found and tossed a lot of expired products—some of them dating back to when I was living in Wisconsin. Everything is now neat and logically organized, and that feels pretty good. I can now open the door to the master bath again when giving the “let me show you around the place” tour.
The kitchen had needed a major purging for a while. Old baking materials and herbs and spices had to go. The pantries were all emptied and sorted, long-expired things were tossed, and everything was reorganized. Now that I can see what I have to work with, cooking will be much easier.
That was pretty much the whole weekend’s work. So, what’s the next phase in Operation Move-In? Well, there is the whole matter of the upper floor, parts of which have not been worked on since my first semester of Law School in 2004. Seriously, there are old class notes and textbooks that probably haven’t been touched in six years—again, where did the time go? In my defense, as I settled in here at this house, implemented wireless broadband internet access, and began to use a laptop exclusively, I found I didn’t need to use the office upstairs at all. Regardless, I need to get that space cleaned up and organized. I suppose this is my best chance, as I have about six weeks of what I call the “dead season” to go before spring hits and I’ll be outside more often than not on weekends. The soccer fields and the lake should expect to see a lot more of me this year.
It feels so weird to be back home. After not really living in this house for the past few months, I’m back, and it looks like I’m back for good. I guess I need to make the best of it.
Well, That Wasn’t Much of a Snowstorm At All
Saturday, January 30th, 2010So, we woke up this morning to discover: Not much. Sure, there was snow on the ground, and it had drifted up against the house and the doors, but there was nothing near the 7 to 10 inches they were predicting. I’m guessing somewhere between two and three inches. The grass is still visible in patches.
Dad used my snowblower to clear the paved portion of their driveway off, which had drifted in some places to maybe 10 to 12 inches high. Honestly, that was probably more of a fun nostalgic activity for him rather than a necessity. It’s good to know the snowblower that I stubbornly insisted on keeping from my Wisconsin house still gets the job done.
So was all the preparation wasted? Of course not. The fuel treatment and hauling, the generator maintenance, the evaluating and arranging of the extension cords, all that needed to be done anyway. It’s better to be prepared and then not have to make use of all those preparations rather than the reverse. On the plus side, my generator is ready for the inevitable power outages that will come with the spring storm season, which is only really four to six weeks away. I can’t believe January is over already. Seems like New Year’s was just yesterday, but that story is for another time, another post, and probably isn’t worth telling at all.
Where Did Those Posts Go?
Saturday, January 30th, 2010Let’s be honest: I don’t have many regular readers here. This blog has come and gone, been active and stagnated for over eight years now. (Really? That long? Wow.) So, I doubt anyone has even really noticed that some posts from earlier this month disappeared.
If you did notice and wonder what happened, the explanation is simple: I took those posts down after some recent personal life events caused me to reevaluate how much I wanted to reveal to the world at large about my feelings and my personal life. These same life events made one post in particular look rather foolish.
Maybe someday I’ll put those posts back up when things aren’t so raw for me. Time heals, and all that stuff. For now, I’m going to be in a more private mode here. Not so much the “Heart of Chuck,” but maybe more “What’s Up on the Farm” and “Why We Make Irrational Choices About Computers.” Oh, and yes, lots of Clark photos and stories, I’m sure.
…And The Snow Keeps On Coming…
Friday, January 29th, 2010There is a serious snowstorm raging outside. Clark is hunkered down in front of the fire here in the living room. With the cold and swirling winds, the temperature in here is just barely reaching 68 degrees. Normally, the fireplace can get the temperature up to almost 80 in the living room and near 70 in the adjoining master bedroom. I guess I could turn on the heat pump, but it would likely just hammer away all night and not raise much but my electric bill. Sometimes I miss having a real basement with a real furnace like the houses I grew up in. Then again, it’s really only about six weeks out of the year here that it gets cold enough to consider any winterizing effort.
Tomorrow, we will have to see what we wake up to in terms of snow accumulation. They were predicting 7 to 10 inches here in Hopkinsville, but so far, it looks like we’re going to be on the light side. Daylight will reveal the truth.
I’m Fine. [Not] Really.
Friday, January 22nd, 2010Coworker comes into my office, singing “Chuckie’s in Love!”
Ugh. Not this. Not now, please. What crappy timing. I wince, but I try to look Ok: Straighten up, look strong, confident, in charge and in control. I am none of these at the moment.
“How’s life, Chuck? You doing Ok?”
I do my best nod and smile, but apparently what I mustered had “not so much” written all over it.
Coworker gets a little twinge of concern: “You Ok, Chuck?”
This time, with more effort, I manage to squeak a “Sure, I’m good” out of my mouth and give a much better fake smile. The coworker relaxes.
“Well, it can’t be that bad, I mean…you’re not cryin’, right?!”
I think to myself, “You should have been here yesterday.”
I say instead, “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” The coworker smiles and leaves.
Sigh.