Suzanne Calling

This is just a small taste of the neon we saw last night in Miami Beach. I definitely want to go back down there for a couple of nights and spend entire evenings shooting pictures of all that the city has to offer. Probably weeknights, because they might be a tad less busy!

1. Drive 4.5 hours. 2. Have him attend a meet and greet with some of the legends of Progressive Rock.

The other day, I sat down with my friend James and gave his resume a massive overhaul. He got his Master's last May, went to career services on campus to get assistance in writing one and they gave him one they said was solid. Meanwhile, I explained that if you're not getting calls in ten months, that resume is NOT solid. I hired people for retail for years, plus I have helped a lot of people with their resumes. It's just one of those things I do well, so it was important to me to help James with his. Over the years, I've given a lot of people the same information: your resume is a SALES tool! You need to make the person looking it over think 'hey, this James person has done some interesting things and his portfolio looks fantastic. I want to meet him." It's not going to happen with a resume that looks something like this: James G address, Tampa FL email address phone Education Master of Arts, Instructional Technology USF, Tampa FL May,...

As I sat in Stats class tonight before class began, I found a message from my boss "Can you do Frequency Distribution tables in Excel?" The question was amusing, because she took Stats 2 last year. I responded yes, I can, but it might be easier in SAS. Seems our college came to her this afternoon with this request for Monday. She is inundated with work, so it is understandable that she asked if I could do it. The rest of our team has M.Eds or MAs, and statistics courses usually aren't part of our realm. So, I expect to be calculating data tomorrow for a portion of the day. The funny part is that tonight's lecture may have made more sense if it was in that African clicking language. It was about partial and semi-partial regression analysis and boy, did it confuse me. It was only after we'd spent two hours on it that the professor revealed 'well, I don't want you to consider using this for analyzing your data, but you do need to know this.' ...

I posted a picture on Facebook yesterday, as I am prone to doing. Those who know me and/or have read the blog for a long time know that I'm an advocate for gay rights . Long before this week's news about the cases before the Supreme Court to repeal DOMA and challenge the California Proposition 8 repeal, this has been a topic here on my blog and on my Facebook wall. The picture was of the Statue of Liberty kissing a dipped Justice in front of the red equal signs that are everywhere on FB right now. Many supporters, but one dissenter, who lamented that there are bigger issues that we should put our attention on right now. Well, sure, but none of those issues are being heard by the Supreme Court today, thanks. I agreed with her opinion that our government is too big and spending is out of control. Sure, we need to figure out something about gun control-but they're not the issue in front of nine justices. Knowledge is power, and by sharing some of this here, maybe i...

There are goals that doctoral students must meet before they sit for qualifying exams. Depending on the program and the school, getting published and presenting at conferences are more important than the dissertation defense. My school does put some weight on these things, but thankfully, the professors realize that all of us in the program work full time and have families, so they're supportive without being pushy. We have regular doctoral meetings and each of us is charged with sharing our objectives. This helps in keeping us accountable and on target. At January's meeting, I stated my goals for this year as gathering my committee, specifically, reaching out to my Cognate department and setting my path in their program. My other goal was to complete the literature review I've been meaning to do. That was my summer assignment for myself, hoping to submit for publication in the fall. There's something that isn't on that list. I have yet to attend an ac...

One of the things my boss did not mention in all our conversations about applying for my job, in the interviews, and then in the two weeks leading up to my start date was the hours I'd be working. As she'd been in classes with me before, I knew she, like me, preferred to be habitually early for classes (we're talking a half hour to 45 minutes early), which meant she got out of the office around 4:15. So, the Thursday before I started, I asked 'Are my work hours 8-5?', thinking that I need to be prepared if they're not. The response was a 'Well...yeah,' in a tone that said that it just might be a guideline rather than a hard and fast rule. Other than working retail management, where no one got in unless I was there, this is the first job where I take that 8am start as a hard and fast rule, even if it isn't necessary. The other day, I awoke when I should be leaving the house and still, I only arrived to my office five minutes late-and no one els...

Once upon a time, there was an easy way to tell I'm not a morning person: my hatred of eggs and coffee. Now, I drink coffee, but I still hate eggs. There was only one guaranteed item that would make me come to breakfast: corned beef hash. Back then, it was Broadcast brand out of a can, but yum. It wasn't until my late teens and the luncheonette across from the gas station where I worked with Ed making it did I experience homemade hash. Oh my, did that taste sooo good! Still, canned was acceptable, but only if it came in that yellow can, or it was cooked to crispy goodness on a restaurant griddle. Let's just say that places that serve it around here are few and far between. So, when I made corned beef for St. Paddy's day, I had plans. I purposely made more potatoes than I knew we would eat, and I kept back about a pound of meat. Today, I made some from scratch, and it was crazy easy. Corned Beef Hash 8-9 red skinned potatoes, boiled, with skin on, cut in...

Today, 15 students took the same comp exam I took last June. Unlike the two subsequent exams, I spent some time with most of those students in online sessions, one in face to face, and two in email exchanges. I shared materials that had been given to me to prepare, as well as my own experience with the three hours that they'd spend summing up the knowledge they'd gained in eleven classes. Now, I'm anxious to hear how they did. Not quite as much as they are, but definitely invested in hearing they succeeded. I am hoping some of the information I shared about my experience helped them, things like: Study one content area per day. Focus your efforts on your weakest area first. Write so that someone who knows nothing about what we do can understand. If given an either/or (two content areas typically do), go with what feels right, rather than the course you took's question. Figure on your toughest topic to take you an hour to prepare and write, the remainder ar...

Caribbean food for lunch, Indian for dinner, what else would you call it? While there are plenty of places to eat on campus, there are no dining places in the immediate vicinity of my office, so I have to leave. (What's kind of sad is that a place they took us to during orientation and I really liked, is on the opposite side of our pretty large property). So, that means I will explore for a while. I didn't feel like the places I'm familiar with, and spied Jerk Pit and got a jerk pork salad. It was decent,but I've had much better jerk foods before. The weird thing, and I don't know if it's me: if the seasoning is off, maybe a bit too bitter, I notice I have this overwhelming urge to have chocolate after eating some jerk foods. Could that be a defense mechanism to coat the bitter? For dinner, I have a standing date with a former coworker, and we went back to Cafe Roti. This time, I went for an old favorite, the Korma, but with beef. That sauce is so f...

...and a 4 hour lecture do not play well with each other. I struggled to keep my eyes open for the second half of the class, and purposely called a friend to chat with for the ride home, I was that sleepy. I think I need to remember to take one when I have insomnia!

I've been picture heavy the past few days, finally putting on the blog what I stated I'd do at the beginning of the year. :) Monday was an all day orientation and yesterday morning was spent learning about benefits, but I got to my office in the afternoon and hit the ground running. My boss was headed out of town for two days, and we spent 20 minutes going over what she needed me to do. She then gave me access to the stuff I needed to do-and I finished my portion in two hours instead of two days. Part of the reason she'd been bugging me to come work for her for the past nine months is that she knows I'm a quick study, but it was a little surprising to me that I blew through things at that pace. Granted, the next three things on my to-do list will probably take up the next two days. I was asked to go to lunch with most of my department. They go out to eat most days, and they really, really like sushi. I got the tempura, because the smallest plate of sushi ...

I'd been meaning to get back to this campus to take pictures ever since I got the D-90, but didn't make the effort until Saturday, when friends were in a 5K and I was the cheering section/paparazzi. I still want to go back and get more...