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“For the Love of Pete, Call Me David”

David SkortonDavid Skorton was probably one of the coolest people to head a huge organization that I have ever met. By coolest, I mean that in a very dude-like matter of way as well as just being so laid back. And by organization, I mean the University of Iowa. I can’t say that I’ve met a whole lot of people who were presidents of large universities, but Skorton was just a nice guy.

He’s smart, calm, and always relaxed, no matter what major issue is facing him. If you ask him a question that he doesn’t have all the answers for, he’ll admit it and promise to get back to you on it. I have yet to hear anyone say that he’s never followed up on his word either. Sure, it helps when you have a group of people helping you out and planning your day, but the guy wasn’t paid $300,000+ to sit on his rear all day long. He always had something going on and somewhere to go.

Sadly, he’s leaving the UI. I know my ties have been cut for a while now, but it makes me concerned to see him leave. These are massive shoes to fill, not to mention his devotion to the arts and education. One thing I always admired about him was his focus on equating spending on athletics with the rest of the university. Those roots run deep in terms of where the funding goes, but the arts really had chances to shine under his administration.

Skorton at KSUISkorton was named President in the last months before my time at KRUI was over. The first time I met him as president of the UI, he demanded that he have a tour of the new station facilities with me since he was told that I was the most knowledgeable about the new digs. It still bums me out that we never had that opportunity. I had many chances to talk with him before his promotion from a vice president position, having him on a few radio shows I either hosted or engineered. He always prefered that I call him by his first name and noted that every time he met me, I looked different either by weight or length of hair.

During my days at WSUI/KSUI, I had interaction with his latin jazz program that he loved more than anything to do. The show was a release for his always busy schedule. He always had something cool and new to play that he shared something about to you as he squeezed in a conversation with you between air breaks or while walking down the hall. I have yet to find anyone who is a better master of having a conversation while walking away from you without making you feel shunned.

Cornell University is where David Skorton will be heading to next. There is a reason that such a prestigious school wants this guy. He’s that good. Best of luck to him.

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Thank You, Clubside Breakfast Time!

Coffee Award!Much apologies to Cosmo for not letting him know sooner, but the humega special award that I won from the Clubside Breakfast Time Podcast came to us about a week ago. Very sweet!

Thanks so much, guys!

Now I wonder if Bill can find me something I can ghetto together to grind these coffee beans down. Maybe a computer hard drive cobbled together with a rock tumbler or… something.

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The Award for What What Goes to Who What?

The Academy Awards are days away. I keep finding myself not really caring. For once in a long while, independent films are getting more of a nod, and I still have little to no interest. I think a lot of this stems back to my loathing of film critics in general. On top of that, just being a film major in college for a few years. It’s sad to say, but the film department at the University of Iowa got to me. The atmosphere where nothing is good unless there is a general concensus to merit something being collectively “good” among both teachers and students really turned me off. At the same time, you can only stand non-narrative, abstract films so much until you want to poke something in your eyes to make sure you still have some sort of sense left in them.

I’ll probably watch the awards for the main reason that Jon Stewart is hosting. I liked his short lived show on MTV from back in the day. It’s where I saw Live and Orbit perform for the first time. In fact, that was the last time I saw Orbit perform ever, but I have seen a few Live shows since. Sadly, the academy awards won’t be nearly as cool of an experience. Stewart’s a pretty entertaining guy, even though his antics are getting dangerously repetitive to me. I think that’s why I only check into the Daily Show once and a while.

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Lighting the Inukshuk For 2010

Rebecca and I ventured down to English Bay last night for an interesting ceremony. The Inukshuk will be “lit” until the winter olympics arrive here for 2010. I could be wrong, but I could have swore that the Inukshuk was always lit at night.

Some various shots from the event last night.

[mygal=inukshuk_lighting]

Mayor Sam Sullivan was there as well as John Furlong to represent VANOC for the event. It was pretty amazing to see these people in the flesh. It really puts everything into perspective. The games are real and will be here in four years.

We stood there watching the whole event with our respective hot, soy drinks in hand, surrounded by various protesters, and listened to people around us complain that they couldn’t see. The most interesting thing that happened was the people talking to the guy with the pirate flag protesting the money being spent on the games. I’ll have more to say about that another time.

Last night was just awesome. Nothing fancy, but I really enjoyed the night. Rebecca kept freaking out because the weather turned warm at the start of the whole event, but the sun going down really changed that. We were both pretty excited walking home thinking that if we just keep living in the west end, we’ll have a pretty good location to get to the venues once the games are here. This city will just be nuts.

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Living Through the Weekend Hangover

Making my coffee and oatmeal this morning, Bill sent me a link to a story about creating your very own popcorn popper coffee roaster. Looking at this, I thought it was cool in a geeky way. Then I looked over at the microwave oven we just got for our wedding and the coffee waiting for me in the press. I have to say that after going a number of months of living with the restriction of jiffy pop for popcorn popping purposes, this wasn’t such a cool idea.

The real problem is that there is only one location in the west end of Vancouver that we have ever been able to find jiffy pop at. I can’t be too sure how far that is, but you can get there and back within the time span of a single intermission during a Canucks game.

When I sat down to read this again, I realized that it’s just a ghetto coffee roaster. I live in Vancouver where you can’t throw a rock without hitting some place to grab a coffee. Fantastic coffee, I might add. Don’t need the roaster, but the microwave is sweet.  So is the toaster oven!

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Studying the Spread of Computer Viruses

F-Secure has long been a site where I’ve looked towards to track the latest developments in the world of computer worms and viruses. Lately they’ve unveiled their world map to the public. It’s a great tool to see the spread of the lastest threat as well as older threats that are still out there. It gives you a sense of the urgent need for technical security of electronic information.

Remember, just because you patched your computer and don’t have any problems does not mean that you will always be safe from the old and new. This is an informative tool, but creepy all at the same time.

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Coming Back Down From Such Great Heights

I have a ring on my finger now. It’s somewhat annoying at times, but I’m getting used to the feeling of it being there. I’ll sit there and play with it almost constantly, checking quite often to make sure that I haven’t wore a hole into my ring finger from the constant motion. Dancing At The ReceptionLiving a life with the person you love, someone you are convinced is your soulmate, and take that to a higher level of devotion is something that I am comfortable with and have done. This ring thing is really going to take some getting used to. It’s only been a matter of days, so I know I can do this.

Mom and Dad left yesterday for Iowa. My brother and his family departed on Sunday after the wedding. Don Deeley will be departing this afternoon. After that, life will slowly return to being normal again, whatever that means. We’ll be able to have our home back to ourselves, relax without any planning going on in our heads, and just be together with the comfort of knowing we will never have to part, no matter what our respective country’s governments say.

Wedding CakeEverything about this weekend was amazing. It was crazy, hectic, filled with tears, insane, and incredible. Me being the groom, I was left out a little on the planning. I knew pretty generally what to expect, but it just got to that point where my mother-in-law took quite the charge in the whole event. I just had to show up.

The ceremony, the reception, the food, the amazing cake, wine, music, DJ (Don Deeley), family, friends… I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

I’m married now. I have a wife. That’s the one thing that has drastically changed since this weekend. Other than that, I don’t feel much different.

If anything, I just feel really, really… really tired.

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The Eagle Has Landed

My parents are now in Vancouver.  They left in the very early hours of the morning, Iowa time.  From the moment I got up till the time Rebecca was in route to pick me up to head to the airport, I was flying all around the house cleaning.  Maybe it was the cleaning fumes, but I swear I was getting the nervous feeling in my stomach.  That sense that something big is about to happen.  The simple fact that this was just my parents.

They’re just not coming for a short visit, though.  This is our wedding we’re talking about.  We had to leave them waiting just a little while at the airport, but I felt all the nervousness fade away once I saw them in the arrival area in the international terminal.  It’s just a shame that the clouds have returned and they are not able to see all of the beauty Vancouver truly has to offer.

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Oh Yeah, That Was Today

On Sunday, I got up a little bit before Rebecca did to take a nice run before our mad day of running errands.  With iPod loaded and clothing bound to keep me warm enough for the approximately five kilometer route, I was on my way towards the waterfront by Coal Harbour and into the park.  That’s when I remembered seeing some signs about a charity run going on, but I couldn’t remember if it was Saturday or Sunday.

It was Sunday.

No big deal, but here are all these people running along, completely taking over the path that they were being led on.  I did my best to avoid the congestion and stay out of their way, but coming back towards Lost Lagoon on the Tatlow trail, I had no choice but to join the group.

I wasn’t sure how far these people had ran already nor how far they were going.  I just felt like such a jerk because here I was, passing everyone on their left without missing a beat.  Out of the corner of my eye, I caught some people kind of giving that look of disbelief.  How could they be getting passed?  I was probably on kilometer 3.5 at that point.  Then someone was trying to keep pace.  I can only imagine how tired he or she must have suddenly felt when I went off to the left while the rest of the crowd ventured right.

Speaking of running, this site is a must have bookmark for anyone who is a runner in Vancouver.  Thanks to vanmega.com for the link.

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Showing Off At the Olympics

It seems to me that there have been a number of medals lost by team USA athletes due to this bizarre display of selfishness showing up here and there. The medal heat of the women’s snowboard cross kind of demonstrates my abstract thought here. I missed the race where Jacobellis’ grab cost us the gold medal, and she claims to not have been showing off. I find this kind of hard to fully believe. She wanted to share the excitement with the crowd but we’re to believe that she wasn’t showing off the fact that she had an untouchable lead? Talk about crash and burn.

Then there is Bode Miller. You love to hate him, and hate to love him. He’s a guy who speaks his mind and tells you how it is. On the other side of that, what he says can sound absolutely stupid. He’s good at what he does. He knows this. Miller is nearly his gift to you. His disqualification in one event meant to him that at least he wouldn’t have to drive a couple hours to Torino for the medal ceremony. This was the guy to watch. Known for being daring, skiing intoxicated in competition, and just being one of the best.

What is happening to team USA? Where is the team? The desire has shifted from the glory of competition and representing your country to being the best of your best. In fact, even those winning gold medals like Shani Davis exhibits this idea of this being an all for one situation. It is completely his call to participate where he believes he can be the strongest, but the team saw his abilities to win. He did bring home the gold in the 1000m, but maybe he could have another one for his fellow team members.

$25,000 bonus. That is what a member of team USA gets when they win a gold medal. Some of these people scrape by to live out their dreams for a brief moment, every four years. Others have endorsement contracts that makes the money a drop in the bucket. Joey Cheek is donating his bonus towards the cause in Sudan. That’s class, but not everyone gets this added boost to their pocket book in other countries. Canada certainly doesn’t, but there is talk of doing it in the future to “buy more gold medals” from their athletes.

This is a moment of a lifetime to just be in the games and representing their country, no matter how big, small, spectacular, or brief the event is. You show up at the opening as our country. I bet there are a bunch of people who will skip out of the closing ceremonies because it’s just too fluffy for their more important, personal lives. It’s ugly. It’s confounding.

This is where you expect me to say that I’m ashamed to have them represent my country in the olympics. I’m not saying that. I’m more so trying to portray the thought of, what the hell?