Fall Semester 2005 - A Few Surprises

Hmm.. it has been a while since my last post. To catch you up-to-date,

Elvis et al. came to visit and we had a grand time! Thanks to "Dude" for having all the gaming group hang out at his house for one awesome night of friendship reminiscing. Thanks to Keith of course for running an impromptu session that unbelievably got us all doing something. Thanks to Mama Parr for hosting one heck of a gathering for us so we could visit. Thanks to the Cali-Parrs for making the traverse and thus prompting all us nutjobs to get together! :) It was spectacular!

Nattsu quit her job at the Registrar's office and is now working at Honda Precision as sortof an executive assistant. She likes it so far even though she's putting in some long hours since they're opening a new facility.

Surprise! The Fall semester started for me and my new class "Play & Technology" got pushed to the Spring. That's okay with me though, as it just gives me more time to work on the content and arrangement. I also spent some time speaking with other departments. It seems I can override the cap for my class and add some engineering folks, some education folks, whomever I wish, and they can count it as an elective - without me going through OODLES of red tape. YAY!

With this gaming thing in mind (isn't it always with me?), I thought this was appropriate to mention. Some of you know I got my Master's in Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign almost two years ago. I focused in "Mediated Entertainment Communication." Christian Sandvig was already there and as I was leaving, Dmitri Williams got hired, whom I suspect are some of the culprits behind this research study - especially Dmitri, that wascally wabbit, but I could be wrong. Check this out: It is a WoW Gaming Study. Also speaking of gaming, that hunter you heard about I had created on Icecrown - is now 45. Go me! ;)

Yet another surprise - The first day of school I was teaching 4 classes. Then a colleague of mine logged into his class to find that instead of the normal cap of 26 students, he had over 50 in one class. Yikes! So, being the crazy guy I am, I spoke up. Now I teach five classes. Oh well, at least I'll get the five out of the way and only have to teach 4 in the Spring. :)

One more surprise - Last year I created and hosted the First Annual Chester Gibson Public Speaking Contest. This year is obviously the 2nd Annual Gibson Public Speaking Contest and Dr. Gibson really came through. He and his wife Faye have donated $1,000 + the cost of plaques for contestants, so that our winners can earn some cold hard cash! That's AWEsome! Last year students were ecstatic that they could win $300 for 1st, $200 for 2nd, and $100 for 3rd place. Imagine how they're going to freak out this year. :) Thanks Gibsons!

Since school has started back I haven't had time to relax too much. I've been filling my free time with scholarly endeavors for the most part - I guess that's a good thing. But I'm itching to play some more MTG soon. I've GOT to. I NEED to. So maybe soon Chang and the Gang will hang out with me and we can throw down some cards. The only thing I've had time to do a little bit of is WoW and you know where I stand on that one now. But I'm also looking forward to a few new things so I can diversify the games we analyze in the Spring class. I signed up for - and who knows if I'll get into - Pirates of the Burning Sea. And I recently pre-ordered City of Villians, the companion (although NOT an expansion) to City of Heroes. It looks like some fun times are on the horizon!