A Dream Come True... finally...

It's been 3 years since I started teaching at ITT Technical Institute in Getzville, NY. A lot of you new about me starting out there back in July of 2005 covering a single class on Director and Flash. Recently, and unfortunately, a few of the full-time instructors departed for industry jobs. The downside has frankly been the loss of some very talented, dedicated people who really cared for their students. I know I've been disappointed by those people moving on to new things, and I do wish each and every one of them well in their future endeavors.

I must say, however, that their leaving finally opened an opportunity for me, and as much as I wish I could still teach with them regularly, I am grateful for the opportunity presented to me, and I hope I can do them proud.

Officially, I will be starting as a full time professor (not a Doctor or PhD... yet, but a professor nonetheless) of Multimedia this quarter. This is the culmination of 2 and a half years of hoping and desiring such a position, so I consider myself very fortunate to have a chance to finally do this. I've sometimes heard the joke "Those who can, do, those who can't teach, and those who can't teach, teach gym." I don't agree. I've seen a number of very talented and skilled people come in from the industry, or go out to it, and I think that teaching is a very special and important part of building the future. I don't say that to sound all high and mighty, but only to point out that I have a great level of respect for teachers of all levels. It's not an easy job to do, and it's even more of a challenge when it becomes your primary focus, professionally. Still, I can but hope I'll be up to the challenge and that I'll bring out the best in my students.

It is a dream come true, and I hope that I can make it an exciting turn of events for my students... and something that can make my peers and fellow professionals excited for and pleased with me.

Congratulations and farewell...

I find myself a bit contemplative, tonight. That might sound ominous, but it's because I have to say goodbye to 10 extraordinary individuals. Well, maybe it's not goodbye in a permanent fashion, but it is the end of something big. 10 of my students have completed their capstone projects and are, with the close of this week (and all going well) done with their Associates.

It's rather funny. I've heard some people say that in teaching you don't want to get too attached to your students, but it seems like that's the very thing that has allowed me to improve, persistently, as a teacher. So after the close of capstone class today, I bid a farewell and well wishes to some very special people, and I feel inclined to repeat that here:

To Jon, Kelly C., Karen, Sara, Nick, Kelly L., Chris, Gary, Brian and Andre, I wish you all the best and great success, though I know you will achieve it not due to luck, but to your own amazing skills and dedication. Take care, and please, keep in touch... even if you are calling me on a Sunday at 11pm...

Man, you could bitch about anything...

Wow, is something drastically wrong or what? I can't tell which is worse... the fact that I'm considering seeing a movie like this, or the fact that it's only because of the rest of the CRAP that's coming out that I might consider this a highlight of the next few months of movies. And look, I'm not saying that this looks like a bad movie, but usually on my list of movies to see you'd find some mixture of action, adventure, comedy... and everything due out between now and November in those areas pretty much looks like CRAP.

And again, it's not that I'm saying that the above mentioned movie looks bad, but I tend to not be overly-wild about a lot of independent films because I've seen so many independent films that were a really lousy art student's idea of being mysterious or departing from the norm, or because they're trying to be surreal, and really what it seems like is that your average emo clerk at your overly priced coffee shop (I know they call themselves Baristas, but I don't consider a person who probably doesn't know the difference between Peru and Columbia, and who's got a body piercing count as big as their shoe size, and, whom I might add, probably makes $8.00 an hour to be deserving of what sounds like THAT important a title) shot a whole bunch of meaningless shit with ridiculous amounts of contrast and in a pathetic attempt of film noir to be worth my $9.50 plus drink plus popcorn plus the gas to get out to the theater in the first place. {SLAP}

Sorry... got a bit carried away there. What else is bugging me though?

Frankly, I could say a lot of things, but here's another good one for the world. And I'm not going to blame specific people, because God knows that the economy goes through natural cycles, but WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY'S ECONOMY? Christ almighty, how did we go from a surplus in the federal budget to a complete economic recession in just 4 years? Don't tell me that this is a natural cycle, cause I'll say, "You know, you're right. Every time in the last 40 years that we've had Republicans in control, we've had a natural economic cycle where the country ends up in the SHITTER". I read an article the other day on Google™ News that said, and I quote:

While Washington frets about a record deficit, Iraq has its own financial headache. It has too much money lying around, up to $79 billion in oil money expected by year's end.

The disconnect between red-ink Washington and cash-flush Baghdad gets even stranger - and infuriating for American taxpayers. While the United States pours money into rebuilding efforts, Iraq can't be bothered to spend its own money on essentials like water, sewer, power or road systems. The billions in petrodollars are sitting in the bank while U.S. taxpayers continue paying a long-distance infrastructure program that's cost $48 billion since the invasion five years ago.

The reasons aren't convincing. Iraqi officials claim their fragile central government isn't ready for the challenge of a major rebuild, an answer that's distressingly similar to excuses about why American troops are still needed to prop up Baghdad.

WHAT THE HELL?! I'm not saying America doesn't share some responsibility for what happened over there. But why are we still sending money over there at all when they now have their own surplus? Last I checked, any time we helped a country rebuild itself, they ended up at least for a while with a surplus that they could have used to start working on their own shit, and meanwhile, whenever we could then use a hand, nobody cares about what happens in the U.S. Excuse me, how many times are we going to do this crap? Our economy always collapses through stuff like this, and we see our job market die because we got stuck in some other countries business and took forever to help them fix their problems and then we give them our money, get them up and running and in the mean time our own economy ends up shriveling up like a grape in the sun, and the next thing you know, the only jobs for even highly qualified professionals is working in those stupid overpriced coffee shops next to your average emo clerk who probably doesn't know the difference between Peru and Columbia, and who's got a body piercing count as big as their shoe size, and, whom I might add, probably makes $8.00 an hour and for God's sakes I went to college and I worked my ass off and I didn't need to get enough metal shot through various parts of my body so I'd be setting off metal detectors at LaGuardia when, in fact, I am standing in line for my baggage and FREAKING LAX. {SLAP} Sorry... I don't know what's getting into me tonight... I promise, I won't do that again.

So ok, things have just been getting to me on a lot of levels, lately. I guess, in the end what I'm saying is that it just is frustrating to think that you're mere weeks away from really starting to get ahead in life, and have things start falling apart for like the 5th time in at least one part of your life because of the bloody economy, or some other such thing.

When my personal life and my education is going great, my job and finances are going to hell.
When I get my education and my job / finances running smoothly, my personal life tanks.
When I get my job / finances and my personal life in order, something comes up involving my education.

It leads to this thought that keeps running through my mind today... and it might be defeatist, or pessimistic, but I have to think of it as experience-based...

Making plans is futile; I can never rely on the thing that will allow my plan to bare fruit, and I can never expect change from the way things have always been.

Yes, I am cynical... and I'm sure some of you out there are probably thinking "Christ, this guy bitches and whines about everything". I know I just ranted and rambled on for a good long stretch... but you know, if you didn't feel the same way in part, you probably wouldn't have stayed to read this whole thing, would you?

Yeah, I could bitch about anything... frankly, everyone else does... I just chose to do it on my own website.

Not bragging here, BUT...

I feel loved... really. Wanna know why?

That's why.

Yeah, maybe I'm tooting my own horn on this, but I am proud of that... I hope I can be that much of a positive influence all the time for the students I have.

Incidentally, I did see The Dark Knight, so I will do a movie review, but probably not tonight, and it might have to wait til Tuesday, frankly. Keep checking back.

Update to Social Networks - I swear I have too many already...

Just a brief update to the post I had back on June 5th, 2008. I have added in one additional Social Network to my list, so I have them all listed now for your convenience (or whatever) on the right column to my site. Feel free to add me if you really want to, but please do NOT have really annoying music on your profile if it's a MySpace account.

I now have LinkedIn in my list. If I ever get around to working on my own network again I will add that in as well, but really, this is it... please, no more of those invites to ReFriendz and MyYearbook and Classmates and everything else. I'd like to keep it to just these.