“Oh me, oh my!” you sob. “I am not capable of attending the Covenant College alumni open forum this coming Monday at 8pm because (pick any) a) I no longer reside within the Chattavegas area b) I have a tremendously important other plan for that night c) am a bitter, bitter alum who lives by the maxim ‘if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.’ But I have a stunningly important, wickedly provocative, and cuttingly humorous question that simply must be asked. How oh how can I do this?”

Well, dear reader, I offer to you my services. I will be your proxy, take your stead at the forum, and ask your question for you. I will be your Jeff Gannon, without the adult website connections, and you won’t have to pay me anything, so no, in fact, I’ll be nothing like Jeff Gannon. But I am offering my services as a flak. Just don’t make me ask “How do you deal with students who have divorced themselves from reality?”

As for the response to your question, I will attempt to faithfully transcribe and post it in a timely and accurate fashion. Further, the college will be recording the event (video, audio, I don’t know), and I’ll be posting as to ho you might obtain those.

My questions, which may or may not actually become real questions, depending on quantum flux and such, as thus: “How does the college intend to act more transparently?”; “What values from the college’s past does the administration see as valuable, and how do you intend to translate them into a cogent plan for the future?”

You, no doubt, have better queries. A friendly army of comment boxes await your questions below.

February 27th, 2005 | Covenant | 3 comments

As winter shortened the days, my dissatisfaction grew with the Sennheiser noise-canceling headphones I had purchased over the summer. Gotta blame something. I began researching other options. The Bose was tempting, but a pretty penny. Plus, I wanted something smaller.

My big-ape Technics headphones are great fun, and for pure rock-n-roll bliss nothing touches those holy-mondo drivers, but flying, coding, and urban travel demand a more innocuous and portable solution.

Enter that twice-blessed organization by the unpronounceable (but strangely memorable) name of Etymotic Research. I now use & abuse two of their fine products with much audiophilific satisfaction. The EtyCom headset snaps into the 2.5in earpiece jack in my cell phone, and pipes crystal-clear voices into my head while I strill and chatter about the 40-mph wind gusts skirting around the trees. But that happiness pales compared to the satisfaction that comes from sliding into the silent aural cocoon that is provided by my Etymotic ER-6i earphones. I will share just one story out of many that I could tell, and that others have told. I like to lunch outside in the nearby plaza on nice days. However, the adjacent sidewalk has been subjected to a harsh pummeling this week by a revitalization-mandate-wielding jackhammer attached to a Bobcat. Noise, noise, wretched noise of progress. Thanks to my ER-6is and an iPod on full random, however, my lunch Tuesday was bliss. When the Bobcat started jackhammering half-way through my afternoon meal, I failed to notice ’till the birds took flight from nearby trees in apparent disgust regarding the unheard noise.

Ah, things I like.

February 25th, 2005 | Miscellaneous, Next | No comments