I’m sitting in my office now, winding down from what’s been an all-around good day.  I ran my first road race since August- I’ve been battling through some injury issues for the past 6-8 weeks.  It felt really good to get back and to run at a good pace- I ran a 29:38 8K (about 5 miles), so my pace was just under a 6-minute mile.  Not where I was last year, or earlier this year, but on the right track.  The icing on the cake was the fact that I won the race!  I had one other guy who hung with me, but I ended up holding him off at the end.

I felt in the groove today… the miles went by quickly and my body felt like it had energy- a far cry from the last time I ran a race.  This slightly longer distance also seems to be a bit more pleasant- in a 5K, I feel like I have to kill myself the whole way, but with a little longer distance, it’s a little easier to hold back a tad at first.  Unfortunately, as soon as I crossed the finish line, I had some pain return to my hip, so I’ve been hitting the ice and Advil since I’ve been home tonight.

And, it was obviously nice to see ECU win a game again.  The team I saw today showed some glimpses of the ECU team from the first two games, but also some glimpses of the other team that’s been playing since then.  But, what mattered was getting a win and we did that.  Scoring 30 points was also nice too- first time we’ve done that all season.  I think we can have a good finish to the season if we can just cover the fundamental things- holding onto the ball, making tackles, etc.  Those dumb mistakes are putting us in the position of having to fight back and in some cases have cost us games.  Eliminate those and I think we’re on the right track.

Just like most others I talk to, the current economic woes are trickling their way down to my business. Earlier this year, it seemed like I might be immune from the problems going on. But, in the last couple of months, things have slowed down noticeably. Most of the work I’m doing is the something is broken, fix it variety and far fewer of the elective projects, like new web sites and new computer systems. Times like these certainly make me thankful to also have the steady income of my teaching job at ECU.

But, it’s not really my personality to sit around and wait for things to get better. When stuck in traffic, I’ll always go try a different route, even if it ends up costing me time in the end… anything to avoid sitting still. So, my gameplan is to do the same now. Instead of cutting back, I am about to start on some new marketing programs in an attempt to make the most out of the slow times. My thinking is this- my competitors won’t be advertising/marketing much, so this gives me the opportunity to get visibility that I might otherwise not be able to get. I guess only time will tell if this is a wise move or not, but I certainly prefer it than to do nothing.

On the flip side, I’m glad that I went into IT consulting and not some type of financial consulting or something like that- I can imagine things would be much worse in an industry like that.

Well, all of a sudden, we are a week into the new semester and overall, it’s been pretty good so far.  At our faculty meeting last week, I agreed to take on the task of administering our bypass exam. I went in thinking it was going to be a simple deal… unfortunately things rarely work that way! It’s been a lot more work than it seemed- having to rewrite the exam, switch to a new software package, communicate back & forth with students, the bookstore, publisher, etc. But, it’s been interesting and I’m glad to be moving to the new software- I think it will be a good move in the longrun, but just more work now up-front.

I also get a good feel from students this semester. After today’s class, I left encouraged- I had 2 sections (1 in particular) with really good discussion- we went to the end of class without anyone shuffling things, texting or otherwise showing signs that they were bored. I made a point of coming up with some good discussion items, questions, etc. to try to get students more involved and it seems like it worked. The lack of discussion/involvement has been one of my biggest frustrations in teaching lately and I honestly had a lackluster spring semester, so it’s been refreshing so far. I just hope that the interest stays there and I can do my part in keeping them motivated.

Off to Charlotte tomorrow for the Pirates’ season-opener.  Go Pirates!

It’s crazy to think that this is already my third fall on the faculty at ECU. It really doesn’t seem like it’s been all that long since I first started out. This week basically went like they normally do- kind of a game of my students trying to figure me out and me trying to figure out what kind of group they are going to be. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I have only about 25 or 30 percent freshmen. Hopefully, this may mean some more mature students who have learned some study skills, how to behave in class, etc.

My big challenge this semester is trying to mix up my teaching methods a bit. The more I read, the more I see how students doing/participating can be more productive than just listening. So, I’m trying to do more group activities, games, etc. as opposed to just lecturing. This is a bit tough working into classes of 50 students in a lecture-hall type room. So, I’m spending some extra time trying to get that worked out.

At first, I honestly wasn’t too excited about starting back. I had gotten used to working from home, getting in some extra workouts, etc. But, now that I’m back, I’m excited about another semester and the opportunity to try some new ideas and interact with new students. Every now and then I’ll get an e-mail from a former student and that reminds me why I keep doing this. Of course, there are the cheaters and whiners to deal with, but also the good ones who work hard and make me feel good about what I’m doing. So, here’s to hoping I get a few extra of those this semester

I was somewhat encouraged the other day when I came across a poll that said almost half of the people polled were tired of hearing about Obama (link).  It’s gotten the point now where I don’t really care to watch the news because of the media’s love affair with Obama.  The man can’t seem to cough without reporters being right there.

His rock star status seems to attract a lot of attention and make him pretty popular.  But, I don’t see much in him that would qualify him to be the country’s leader.  Sure he can give a good-sounding speech and show a lot of charisma, but what has he really done to show that is he qualified to be president?  He started campaigning for this job the day he was elected as a senator- awfully ambitious for someone with little political experience.

I certainly hope that the media gets the message and gives us some more balanced coverage.  Not that I really expect much will change… they’ve had their minds made up about this election for some time and seem intent on doing their part to ensure that outcome.

I know this is a couple days late, so you’ve probably seen by now that the government did pass the housing bill that bailed out homeowners, plus Fannie and Freddie.  As a responsible taxpayer, I’m not super-thrilled about this.  Granted, something had to give or this ballooning problem was going to get worse and have a detrimental effect on the economy.  However, it really is a case of rewarding irresponsibility.

How did we get in this mess to begin with?  Banks that were so eager to make a buck that they loaned money to people they never should have loaned it to.  Add to that people who didn’t exercise good judgement about how much house they could afford and bingo, you’ve got this housing mess.  So, ultimately, it was a bunch of people demonstrating irresponsibility and some greed… nice combo.

So, now the banks and individuals that acted foolishly are getting a bail-out from the government, thanks to the wonderful American taxpayer.  What about those of us who purchased homes that we could afford and didn’t borrow too much?  Or the banks that continued to show discretion in who they loaned money to?  What’s in it for us… in the short-term, nothing.  Longer-term, probably higher taxes, especially if rock-star Obama is elected.

This seems to be just one example of a larger trend going on around us.  Rarely does it seem responsibility and sound judgement are rewarded much anymore.  It seems like instead of taking responsibility for ourselves, we are instead told to make excuses and expect someone else to bail us out.

I’ve had the privelege of dealing with some great students, but I’ve also seen this first-hand in that setting.  Every semester I have students beg for extra credit, help raising their grade and tell me how their life will be ruined if I don’t.  I want to ask how they got into that situation in the first place and why I am supposed to fix the problem?  Most likely, it’s because this is what they see around them and this is what they have gotten their whole lives.  I certainly hope that I can do a better job with my kids when the day comes…

I’m not sure whether it’s just me or not, but this summer seems to be flying by- it’s hard to believe that we are only about a week away from August.  For me, summer is usually the time to catch up on projects I’ve been putting off and knock things off of the long-term to-do list.  This summer has been a bit different, with teaching first summer session- that was hard enough to keep up with by itself.

But, I have gotten a few of the big projects knocked out- I have redone my company’s web site (check it out), redone this site/blog, redeveloped my company’s marketing strategy.  So, all in all, not too bad.  Of course, it would be great to have a few extra weeks to do things like organize the cables in my office, but I’m learning that there are some things that you just will never catch up on.

As a sidenote, I have managed to stay running strong through the heat this summer.  I have broken 17 minutes for the 5K twice this summer, something that I had not done before.

So that’s really what’s been going on with me this summer in a nutshell… nothing too exciting or different I suppose.

After a long time of a stale personal web site and a blog that I hadn’t updated in some time, I decided it was time for a change.  So, what I have done is combine my personal site and blog into one site here.  I certainly hope and plan on doing more frequent updates than I have been doing in recent history.

I will also be adding a couple more pages later this month… just need to finish up some content to get it up there.

Thanks for reading; drop me a line if you have any questions.