RTP, Email, and Plaxo's Update Contacts Wizard

I am up for review again. Well I am up for review in the fall. This is The Big One - tenure. I have a little while to get the first batch of things together and then most of the summer to complete the rest complete. The first step is an updated CV, position description, and a personal statement. After that comes a list of reviewers, and then a packet of supporting materials. Packet doesn't really cover it though. Last time the thing was three 3" binders when I finished. Actually I am thinking that maybe I would like to cull it down some for this pass.

I have no idea what to write as a personal statement. I never have any idea what to write for a personal statement. Once Mrs. TANBI wrote me a wonderful personal statement entitled "Fuck." But I still don't think the time is right for that to be a submission. I am sure I will think of something eventually.

The most difficult part of doing the binders this time is going to be reprinting like every single page. Last time I did a header that said "David Boevers - Assistant Professor of Drama." After that review, I got promoted to Associate; so now every header is wrong. Maybe that will make a nice precollege job - reprint David's book. Or maybe I will just pay someone out of pocket to do it.
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I did send out a gazillion emails today looking for referrers. I need something like 20 "peers" and 20 alumni/students. Things went pretty well I think. There's only one person who wrote for me on my last review who is now deceased.

If you are someone that thinks I should have sent you a request but you didn't get one, shoot me an email. I probably just spaced you, or didn't see your name on my list, or - most likely - I don't have a good email for you (yes, I mean you Sara Huddleston).

If you're motivated I would love the help. So let me know.
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Oh, and why doesn't David have a good email for you? This really sucks. So for years now I have been using this online service to handle my address book - Plaxo. It's been great. The service syncs with Outlook and with Thunderbird and somewhere along the way learned to talk with AOL, AIM, Gmail, and Yahoo. They even managed to sync it with LinkedIn. Anytime I changed my address book anywhere it would sync with the service and when I logged in at another computer it would sync and it all worked great.

The service also does birthday reminders and eCards, and it also has task functionality but I have never been enough of a geek to use it. Another plus, is that if someone else is a Plaxo member and they update their information it automatically updates in my account and then syncs to my address books. Fabulous.

The best part though was the Update Contacts Wizard. This little web app let me send an email to every single address in my address book simultaneously and ask for a contact update, and then when someone updated it also synced and migrated to all my address books. Fucking Brilliant! On the last day of school each year I would enter the graduating students' addresses in my address book and then run the wizard. I did a sort of year in review note and asked people to update. It was probably the thing I liked most about the service.

So of course they discontinued it.

They said that people felt like the emails were spam. That's probably true from when the service started and you got this blizzard of requests. But I hadn't seen one in a very long time, so I wonder how much that mattered.

The real problem I think was that it was all so Web 1.5 - in that you had to send an email and then the person had to answer. What with Facebook and LinkedIn and the rest Plaxo really wanted to be a Web 2.0 service. Why? I don't know. As far as I was concerned it was perfect the way it was, but I guess they need to keep moving or be passed by. Their substitute is the Plaxo Pulse. Yet another Web 2.0 network. I already have too many of these and now they want me to join another. The Pulse comes with micro-blogging and a sort of Facebookish "status" thingy - mine currently says "David is really missing the Plaxo Update Contacts Wizard" and it tethers to all your other stuff, so if you post a video on YouTube the other people in your Pulse stream can see it. The ultimate downsidw of this is that to play with the service people have to join. One of the best parts of the old way was that you could answer without joining. The Plaxo people said people are more comfortable with joining the service than not. What people? I'm still regretting Myspace and Ringo, and fighting a backfire action against Facebook, and I already have Blogger, Yahoo, YouTube, LiveJournal, GoodTheatre, and LinkedIn. Why would anyone want to join another network when they don't have to? Shenanigans, I call it.

All of which has nothing to do with syncing address books which is why I signed up.

Oh, and if a deteriorating service suite wasn't enough to encourage me to drop my account, the company was just bought out by Comcast. So now the demon spawn of cable has my address book. There's an iron clad privacy agreement, and the terms of the sale leave Plaxo an independent unit, but it still gives me the heebie jeebies.

So now I have to find a way to update my address book without 700+ individual emails. Got any ideas?

Too True

Here's A Fairly Depressing Thought...

We could have colonized Mars with the money we spent on the Iraq war -- what else could we do? - Boing Boing

Well, This Guys Says A Mouthful

Assessment Changes Everything :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs: "“I see the focus on outcomes assessment as a dodge from the real problems with the American educational system: that it is embedded in an inequitable and violent socioeconomic system. The kind of policies that would truly help the students with whom I work are not more hearings, campus visits, and testing but adequate funding for secondary education; child care; a living wage; debt relief or, better yet, free universal postsecondary education; an adequately compensated academic workforce exercising free inquiry and building an educational community; and universal health care.”"

I wonder if Barak Obama will need a Secretary of Education...

Ex-congressman becomes Libertarian '08 candidate

CNN.com: "'We have only 163 days to win this election -- do not waste one single day,' Barr told supporters at the Libertarian National Convention in Denver, Colorado."

How can they nominate Bob Barr? This is probably the most recognizable of the impeachment managers from the circus that was the congressional prosecution of Bill Clinton. I have never heard this man's opinion of anything and I dislike him - stronger than "dislike" communicates.

The only way a Libertarian candidate has any chance at all is to pull independents like me, Republicans, and Democrats. I don't know about other indys or Republicans, but I can't see a single Democrat with any kind of memory voting for this guy.

Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the race, also ran, Bob Barr.

Tree Tragedy

Did anyone else hear this?

NPR did a story about an Asian beetle that is eating up all the Ash trees around certain cities in the upper Midwest. I wish I could have found the right pictures to go with this, but I struck out. Anyway, they found the Emerald Ash Borer in Wilmette, IL. I grew up driving down Lake Avenue in Wilmette day after day, and Lake Avenue is probably the prototypical "Tree Covered Lane." There are trees maybe every 30 feet or so and they all arch over the street making a perfect covered path. I always thought this was the coolest thing. Late in my high school career the Highland Park foresters planted trees on Summit Road, near my house, in the same manner. I always thought it was a shame that I would have moved away long before these trees looked like the ones in Wilmette.

I am really just hoping that neither the trees in Wilmette or the younger ones in Highland Park are ash.

That area already had a tree die off. Years ago they lost a whole slew of trees to Dutch Elm disease. They talk about that past in the NPR story. See it seems that after the Elms died many communities started aggressive replanting programs to build up their tree stock. Got any guesses as to the species they selected for the replacements?

Yup, Ash.

So everyone out there cross their fingers that we're able to solve this before they lose all their ash trees too.

Really?

Mayor, council in hockey fight: "Mr. Shields' advice for Penguins fans who want big signs: 'Get a bedsheet and hang it off your front porch.'"

You know, people ought to really do this. Everyone in Pittsburgh ought to do this. Then maybe they would see how unfortunate it is to say something like that. FOLKS, THE PENS ARE IN THE STANLEY CUP, IT WILL BE ON WORLD WIDE TV, NOW IS THE TIME TO MAKE PITTSBURGH LOOK COOL, YOU KNOW, SO PEOPLE WILL MOVE TO HERE INSTEAD OF AWAY FROM HERE.

Get your shit together down there, you're making us look like metro West Virginia. How sad.

(All caps and bold, I wonder what that is?)

LOL Commencement

Ellipses...

The cat just tried to give me a C-Section. I think she might need to go back to med school... Going on my summer schedule tomorrow - read: probably not going to the office... I could do with less Geata singing... Two game sevens in the NBA playoffs and I hardly noticed. So sad... School's out for the summer. Purnell is so sleepy... Really I think there's a logical gap in the argument that because Obama couldn't beat Clinton in a given state that somehow he'd also lose that state to McCain... All that stuff I printed with "assistant professor" a couple of years ago, now I have to print them with "associate professor." I guess thats the sort of problem one wants to have... The Pens are in the Stanley Cup finals. Allegheny County productivity is about to take a dip... I haven't seen Speed Racer yet, but I think they're getting the shaft... I did see Iron Man. Iron Man is the shit... This is about the time I went a little spending crazy last year. I hope I can show a little more restraint this time around... I wonder if theres a business to be run doing all the bidding and drawing for every summer stock in the country out of one central office... Been a few weeks now and the rental company hasn't billed me for that exploding window, maybe they're being reasonable... It's better for me when there aren't cookies in the house... I can't help myself, every time Hackers is on I have to watch... Don't forget to vote in the shoe poll...

I Don't Know What to Say

And While You've Been Busy Critting...

Penguins Emphatically Earn Trip to Finals - New York Times: "Pittsburgh won the best-of-seven series, 4-1, and will play the winner of the Detroit-Dallas series in the Cup finals. The Red Wings lead the Western Conference series, 3-2, with Game 6 on Monday night."

Spring 08 Shoe Championship

It's time to vote. Here are the contestants:

#1 - Maddie...


#2 - Alana:


#3 - Rebbecca:


#4 - Naomi:


#5 - Harriet:


#6 - Jeannie:


#7 - Play in winner Dana:


Vote early and often! Winner gets a one of a kind TANBI T-Shirt and the admiration of their peers.

You can VOTE HERE.

Semester Reviews - PTM Thesis

Only the one this spring. Congratulations to Joel on completion of his thesis and his MFA. Joel is back to WTF this summer to make more high profile industry contacts.

(I missed my chance to get a picture of him with his powerpoint - thank goodness for Photoshop)

Semester Reviews - Tuesday

Man-o-man am I behind. At this rate humans will have evolved beyond feet by the time I do the shoe contest.

Tuesday AM - Job Seeking Seniors:

I'll begin with Dana...


... who would just love an SM job in the NYC area.

Next is Jenn...


... who can probably already buy and sell most of us. You can call her if you are looking for work.

Taking us to Jessika...


... who appears to be taking her organizational skills right out of the business. Let her know if you have a lucrative project management position to fill, doesn't have to be entertainment.

And then Kristen...


... who is looking for production or producing in television news.

Tuesday shoe winner:

Maddie

Congrats to all of the seniors. If the rest of you are around this weekend, come congratulate them yourself:

Ouch!

Injured Actor Files Petition - New York Times: "He was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center, where he is being treated for fractured wrists, a broken back, a shattered pelvis, a fractured sternum, several fractured ribs and a fractured foot."

HA!

Battlestar Galactica: More Frak Than You Could Ever Want: "Adama's shaving mirror is awesomely fracky: Does that shaving mirror in Admiral Adama's quarters look somewhat familiar to you? That's because it's from Ikea, and used as a prop thanks to a particularly oblique in-joke... The actual name of the mirror if you head to your closest Swedish lifestyle emporium just happens to be... Fräck. Someone, somewhere in the BSG scene-dressing department must be cracking up every time they see Edward James Olmos frowning at himself while he shaves."

Shoe Playin

Shoes were very strong this morning, and seeing as how there was a default yesterday I am going to do a playin to replace the Monday PM entry.

Here's the menu (the orange ones are today's winner):


24 hours to vote - in the comments. Woohoo!

F07 Shoe Winner Prize Ceremony

Better late than never I suppose.

Alana hulas with her trophy shirt.

Semester Reviews - Day Three

Day three; I am going to keep up so I don't forget who's shoes I am looking at.

Morning Session:

This was a session fairly lightly loaded with PTM students. The random this has come up with some odd groupings this year.

First up, Alana...

... apparently I nuked out an entire speech by getting caught up.

And then Julianna...

... she segregated work from my classes to the right side of her board.

Monday morning shoe winner:

Alana

Afternoon session:

The luck of the draw gave us a session with only one woman (really cut down the shoe suspense) and no costume students at all. I guess maybe I will have to skew the random for balance in the future.

We begin with Bryan...

... who I compared to a glass on the edge of a table. It made sense at the time.

Then we have Eric...

... who I said doesn't talk enough, but Dick says I am wrong.

And then Ryan...

... S-O-L-E-N-O-I-D, OK?

Afternoon shoe winner:

Laura
(in a sort of forfeit)

Just the one morning and then Thesis presentations remain.

Fall 2007 Semester Review Shoe Winner

So I go checking back, and I knew I hadn't done the shirt yet, but it turns out there was never even a post. Oops. So, last semester's winner is:

Alana

Alana gets 19 votes, followed by 8 for Laura, and then a three way tie at 7 for Chapel, Naomi, and Jessika. Alana will get her one of a kind TANBI T-Shirt tomorrow. Congrats to her and to all of this past semester's entries!

A Woman Would Get a New Hairstyle

Thursday and Friday Semester Reviews

I've fallen behind. I swear I have not been this out of gas at this point of the year since starting this gig. But, I guess it is only fair that I should be as wrecked as the students.

Thursday AM Session:

During this session I told a student that their road to success lay through relaxing their bowels. People pay a lot of money for this kind of advice. Sometimes I wonder why.

So here's Derek...

... he's my Entertainment Engineering student. Take that UNLV.

Next comes Chapel...

... her dad is apparently a chicken champion or something.

Next we have Katie...

... who found some time for Scene Painting.

And then we have Rico...

... who will be back to Williamstown.

Then we have Rebecca...

... and Susan's back.

Thursday AM Shoe winner:

Rebecca

Thursday PM Session:

In this session, Anne asked a student: "What's your number one priority?" I explained to those close by in a hushed voice that my #1 priority is to not get any on the seat, and that we didn't even want to talk about my #2 priority, and then after a second that actually my #2 priority was also not to get any on the seat.

We begin with Alex...


... who will follow Kevin and I to Hudson (Don't eat QPC's off the roach coach).

And then 452...

... she thinks she has to get more comfortable turning in work late.

We wrap up with Yi-Lin...

... who explained that if I were to drop her from the program she expects me to cover the plane ticket home - business class.

Thursday PM shoe winner:

Naomi

Friday AM Session:

I don't have anything clever to say about this session. I was almost late because of traffic (ok because I could not get out of bed). The work lights were on. I like it better that way.

We have Harriet...

... with a collection of nicely matted paperwork. She can't control the weather.

And then Maddie...

... who apparently just finished the "semester of binders."

Our Ms. Boyce...

... really that looks a little casual, yes?

Friday AM shoe winner:

Harriet

Friday PM Session:

Narelle didn't see any of these people.

The afternoon begins with Aaron...

... who finally got his legs under him.

Next we have Jeannie:

... that's a working oleo model, very nice.

And the week winds up with Varsenik...

... who had a really tough semester, but managed a smile at the end.

Friday PM shoe winner:

Jeannie

Four sessions down, five to go. Woohoo.

Now It Looks Like a Pirate Ship

Taking a break to show pictures.

Thanks Deb.

It's Going to be a Busy Three Days - updated - updated - updated - updated - updated COMPLETE!

Critical Path Assignments
Organizational Chart Assignments
Paperwork Assignments
BPTM Newsquiz
BPTM Final Exams
BPTM Final Extra Credit
BPTM Grades
Technical Drawings
CAD prelim Tech Drawings
CAD Design Drawings
CAD Technical Drawings
CAD Mastery Exams
Studiocraft Grades
CAD Indy Study Grades
Materials Reports
Tool Reports
Incident Reports
Rigging Assignments
ScenoFab Finals
ScenoFab Newsquiz
ScenoFab Final Extra Credit
ScenoFab Grades
Stagecraft Grades
Advanced CAD Indy Study Grade
Crew Indy Study Grades
Read Thesis
Prepare For Crew Meeting
Prepare For The Action Meeting
Head Search Prelim Meeting
Head Search Meeting
Crew Meeting
Action Meeting
Send Out SR Response Forms
Hire Precollege Assistants

Having The Painters In

Lousy cameraphone pic...


I think she did a good job painting. Hopefully better pics later.

That Time Again

Last day of class, the end of the semester and the Spring Theatre Trivia Contest is up!

Check it out:

http://cmuptm.blogspot.com/2008/05/spring-theatre-trivia-challenge.html

Good luck.