Let me start off by saying this one thing:  I do not like Death Cab for Cutie.  In fact, I've probably used the word "hate" at times to describe my feelings towards their music.  For whatever reason, they just don't appeal to me at all.  Even further, their singer also sings in the band The Postal Service, who I also strongly dislike.  Between the two of those bands, I have heard only one song that I would say I like.  The rest is no good, in my opinion.

That was, until yesterday.  I generally listen to music while I'm at work and I tend to default to internet radio or Pandora.  Yesterday, I happen to be on the Pandora station "Alkaline Trio" cause I needed the upbeat, punk rock sounds of Matt Skiba, Bad Religion, and the Bouncing Souls to get me through my afternoon.  I don't always pay attention to the artists that are being played, unless a song really grabs my attention.  And one song I heard did just that.  It was very simple guitar with very mellow vocals.  The words started to draw me in as I listened...

Love of mine
One day you'll die
but I'll be close behind
I'll follow you into the dark...

Curiously, I stopped what I was doing as the refrain drew me in even closer...

If Heaven and Hell decide
That they both are satisfied 
Illuminate the Nos on their vacancy signs...

I was struck.  It was a gorgeuos song that did not seem to fit in amongst the upbeat offerings of the Loved Ones or No Use for a Name.

If there's no one beside you
When your soul embarks 
I'll follow you into the dark...

I pulled up the browser window to see who was playing such a beautiful song.  Who amongst my punk rock heroes had created this?  To my surprise, it was none other than Death Cab for Cutie.  Why were they on the Alkaline Trio station?  I want the Lawrence Arms.  I want Rancid.  And Social Distortion. And the Descendants.  But the song that saved my day, that I cannot get out of my head, that I want to hear again... was by Death Cab. 

So today, I have the station set to Alkaline Trio.  And the familiar three chord progressions, the uptempo percussion, the melodic bass lines... they are all there to help drive my day.  While a part of my heart hopes to hear that odd man out song again...

You and me have seen everything to see
From Bangkok to Calgary
And the soles of your shoes are all worn down
The time for sleep is now
It's nothing to cry about
Cause we'll hold each other soon
The blackest of rooms

Spring quarter is now into its 4th week and that means that midterms are just around the corner.  In my days as a student midterms always brought mixed emotions.  On one hand, I knew that we were halfway through that classes materials and that much closer to our next break.  On the other hand, it meant that I would be tested on how much of the course material I had been able to grasp up to that point.

There were a couple of occasions when I felt overwhelmed at midterm.  My grades up to that point were nothing worth getting excited about and it seemed like I would never dig myself out of the hole.  The great thing was that I still had the second half of the class to build myself back up to where I needed to be. 

If I had to give a piece of advice to students as they prepare for their midterms it would be this, “Don’t quit, no matter the outcome.”  If you are struggling in your courses up to this point, you can still recover.  We offer a lot of personal assistance to students that are having a tough time in their classes.  Rob Neuteboom, the Mentor Center Director, is available throughout the week to provide one-on-one help.  He can also connect you with student tutors or faculty mentors that can give you the extra push that you need.  It is also important to be in communication with your instructors.  They are not able to give you extra help if they don’t know you need it or want it.  They may also be willing to work with you if they know you have been seeking extra help from the Mentor Center or a tutor.

Most importantly, stay positive.  You can do this.  We want to help you and see you succeed.  Let us know what we can do to keep you motivated and to encourage you along the way!

I must say I have learned a lot of important lessons in my short life so far.  Despite my best efforts, I still have yet to reach that place of enlightenment in which my learning is through and I have achieved the end.  Even in the last week, my understanding of an old maxim (never judge a book by its cover) has grown.

 You would think someone like me would get it.  Someone that has always hoped that others would judge me by the content of my character and not by my outward appearance.  Someone that does not want his choice of music to prevent him from connecting the mainstream.  Someone that does not want to the fact that he likes sports to alienate him from the alternative set.  You would think, over the years, that I would done a better job of waiting to understand who a person is rather than passing judgment on what appears on the surface.

some quick hit thoughts on a wednesday afternoon:

- i hope all of the students are enjoying their break between quarters.  we have been incredibly busy as we prepare to welcome another group of new students to the campus here in fargo.  don't forget to confirm your schedule so that you receive your books in a timely fashion!

- i found this new band that i love.  they are called attack in black.  unfortunately, their records are only available as imports right now, so they are wicked expensive.  maybe i'll splurge one of these days.

- one of my best friends is working as a roadie for a band.  he has been out on the road now for the better part of the last 6 weeks.  he's been all over the southern and western parts of the country so far and is heading towards the northeast now.  i must say i am jealous at times.  i would love to travel right now.  i could really use a vacation.

- speaking of vacations... i tried to convince my brother (who lives in seattle) to meet me in denver next week for the ncaa frozen four hockey championship.  i have been a huge notre dame fan for as long as i can remember (mostly of the football team) and they are going to the national semi-finals for the first time in school history.  my brother is a big fan of the university of north dakota hockey team and they are also in the semi-finals.  how crazy would a notre dame vs. north dakota national championship be?  but his inlaws are coming to seattle from kentucky, so our dream of attending the frozen four will be on hold for another year.

- we bought a webcam and microphone so that we can start broadcasting live from the campus.  perhaps we will do a regular broadcast of some kind.  any suggestions for content?  we also will be doing a series of "frequently asked questions" and we need to know which questions you'd most like answered... so let us know!

- my least favorite thing about living alone: doing the dishes. 

- my son is coming to visit this weekend and i'm very excited!  i get to see him every other weekend, but sometimes the days in between his visits seem to last forever.  i still need to get the apartment straightened up a bit before his arrival... see the previous point about dishes.

- we start a new quarter on monday and it will be my first full quarter since i've been in this position.  let me know what i can do better... i'm here to help!

The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament kicked off today.  March Madness is in full swing.  I glanced at my bracket a few times today and at last count I was pleased to note that I have 7 out of the first 8 games right.  I heard on the radio that nearly 6 billion dollars in productivity will be lost today.  I hope that I was able to keep my share of that lost productivity to a minimum.  A 45 minute phone call made sure i was not getting too distracted.

i saw an interesting story about the owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves the other day.  Before I get too far into that let me just say, I have never been a fan of any Minnesota teams except for Golden Gophers hockey.  I have a lot of respect for the way the Twins run their team, I was disappointed when hockey left for Texas, and I was disappointed with they chose a horrible name for the new hockey team.  And those are the things I would say are positive in relation to Minnesota sports teams.  Usually my feelings waver somewhere between complete apathy and borderline hatred. 

That being said, it takes something fairly significant to make me take notice when I see Minnesota related news on my favorite sports websites.  This week it was there.  I blame you:  Wolves owner says KG 'tanked it'.  If there had been one individual over the last 10 or more years that made me keep an eye on the Minnesota Timberwolve, it was Kevin Garnett.  The guy made the jump from high school to the NBA probably as smoothly as anyone.  He helped a team that stunk most years to at least get to the point of being a contender.  When surrounded with decent talent, he even helped lead them to the Western Conference Finals.  He was competitive and played hard.  Most importantly, you never heard him complain publicly.  Unlike other big time basketball players, if he ever critcized his owners, it was behind closed doors.  If he ever demanded a trade, it was never publicly declared.  He endured years where the Wolves had no draft pics due to the underhanded dealings of team management. 

But now that Garnett has moved on to a better place and a winning team, his former owner, Glen Taylor, thought that it would be a good idea to criticize Garnett for sitting out the last few games of last season.  One year later, the Timberwolves are once again terrible and Garnett is fighting for a shot at an NBA title.  Sound like sour grapes to you?

I think if Taylor were smart, he would be thanking Garnett for his years of hard work.  Who knows if professional basketball would have survived in Minnesota without Garnett.  Other teams have had to relocate during that time, trying to find an identity and a locale that would love them in spite of having terrible teams.  Minnesota always had a reason to sell tickets:  KG in the lineup. 

So best of luck to you, Glen Taylor.  Maybe your collection of young players and cast-off veterans will make something happen some day.  But in the ultra-competitive Western Conference, you just sold off your Big Ticket.  I'll return to my apathy now, don't be surprised if some of your regular fans join me.

Find more videos like this on Fargo Online Faculty

in the fall of 1999, i left the confines of small town north dakota to start my college journey.  the big city of minneapolis was my target and i took aim.  i learned a lot that year.  a lot about failing test (that turned out to be passing thanks to the curve), about letting go of home, about dorm life, about campus security. 

unexpectedly, i also learned about punk rock.

growing up in northwest north dakota, you don't find out about cultural movements very often.  especially movements that are rebellious and subversive.  i knew of some punk rock bands like green day and mxpx.  mtv was starting to latch on to blink 182 and other poppy, watered down versions of punk rock.  nothing like what i would find in minneapolis.

my exposure to punk rock started slow.  i started listening to bands that had a more political message, stuff with some meat.  rage against the machine was the first to catch my attention.  the first few friends i made were really into the christian ska thing.  it was upbeat and fun, certainly not mainstream.  somewhere in the middle of the rage and the ska, i found punk rock.

i remember as that year went on, two names kept coming up often:  mike ness and henry rollins.  i first saw henry rollins on a flyer that was plastered all over campus.  at first i didn't think much of him.  but mike ness did catch my attention.  i downloaded a couple of social distortion songs (mike ness's band) and really enjoyed them.  girls and transferring kept my attention most of that year and music took a back seat.  moving to fargo would change that.

i needed an outlet and rage against the machine was too political.  they had covered a song by a punk band from washington, dc called bad brains.  through them i found minor threat and a guy named ian mackaye and his new band fugazi.  much to my surprise, ian went to high school with that one guy... what was his name again?  that's right... henry rollins.    they grew up in washington, dc together and were part of the emerging punk movement in the early 80s.  i fell in love with their music, their movement, and in the case of rollins, his writing.

the summer of 2001 brought me two things.  first, i saw fugazi.  they were amazing and my love for dc punk grew like crazy.  the second thing was a new girl in my life.  emily was also into punk rock.  it was through her that i started to listen to bad religion.  and my journey into punk rock continued.  i would pick up a book called dance of days that was written about the punk scene in dc.  i heard the author speak at a local coffee shop and discovered that he grew up a mere 2 hours from me.  how could it be that a small town kid who bought records in williston, nd could end up as a part of one of the most prominant punk scenes in the world?

dance of days would serve me as a guide book the next summer.  along with my copies of some of henry rollins' books, i spent my summer in washington, dc seeking out wilson high school, the 930 club and the georgetown baskin robbins where rollins and mackaye worked.  i walked the bridge that rollins walked and drove through parts of alexandria hoping i would stumble upon the dischord house. 

i don't consider myself much of a punk.  i really never was.  i do find myself pushing back against authority and i find myself questioning "the system" from time to time.  i still love the music and i still read rollins.  this saturday, i get to see him speak.  and so my punk rock journey continues.  this aging punk rock wannabe will see his aging punk rock hero.  can't wait. 

Before I move on to other things, I want to issue a handful of reminders:

 - Students should log in to the Student Portal and confirm their schedules as soon as possible.  If you have any questions about how to do this, contact me. 

 - Students should be filling out the 2008-2009 FAFSA if they want to continue to receive Financial Aid.  If you have any questions about how to complete the FAFSA, contact the Financial Aid Office.

 - We are nearing the end of the quarter and we want to make sure that you are finishing strong in your classes.  If you are falling behind, need a tutor, or need some encouragement for the stretch run, contact me, Gayle Johnson, or Rob Neuteboom.

And now for our featured presentation.... I have never been a big movie guy.  While I certainly enjoy watching movies, they have just never been a big priority for me.  I don't go out to many of them, I rarely rent, and I believe I own 7 or less movies total.  Last weekend, however, I saw two movies that I had not seen before.  I went and saw I Am Legend in the theatre and I rented Knocked Up to watch at home.  I'm no movie critic, so I won't even attempt to make an intelligent assesment of the two movies.  But I will say this: I enjoyed them both.  Neither would qualify as family entertainment that's for sure.  But for a single adult like myself, they raised the status of my weekend from fairly low key (which generally means boring), to mildly entertaining (which means I had some fun inspite of the general boredom). 

I bring this up in part because this week is also the Fargo Film Festival.  I have not been able to attend this event every year, but when I have gone, I enjoyed it.  Were it not for an extended visit from my son this week, I would have tried to attended at least a portion of it.  Like I said, I'm no movie critic, nor did I study film at all in college, so I can't give you a very educated explaination of why I would want to go.  I do consider myself to be an appreciator of art in a variety of forms and this would be just another opportunity to sample some fine arts here in Fargo.  If you happen to be in the Fargo/Moorhead area at all this weekend, I would highly recommend checking it out.

We have a television in the front office on campus.  Most of the time it is tuned into a news station or displays a slideshow with campus announcements.  Once in awhile, we'll flip it to a sports channel at night for a little variety.  Yesterday was different though, we had it tuned into one of the local stations to check out the first round action at the North Dakota Class B Girls Basketball Tournament.

All four first round games were televised, so the coverage stretched into the night.  One of my co-workers from Minnesota was asking about what schools were playing and about the difference between Class A and Class B in North Dakota.  I was more than happy to talk about it.  There is a certain sense of pride that comes with having grown up in a small town in North Dakota.  Bitter rivalries that existed one day, melt away the next when you start talking about being a Class B kid. 

There are 120+ teams in North Dakota that are considered Class B for girls basketball and other sports.  Many of these teams are actually co-ops between a collection of small schools.  I remember at one time while I was in high school, we were Divide County-Wildrose-Alamo and played against teams like Westhope-Souris-Newberg and De Lacs - Burlington.  Some of the football teams we played against were Parshall-Plaza-North Shore, Trenton-Trinity Christian, Hatton-Finley-Sharon, and the perennial powerhouse was New England-Regent.   My favorite was A-E-E-M-O, which rolls off the tongue a bit easier than saying Adams-Edimore-Edingburg-Milton-Osnabrock.  It didn't matter to us that Wildrose co-oped with Ray in football and Tioga in track, when they were a part of our girls basketball team, they were family.

In a town like mine, having a good team to cheer for is huge for the community.  In the '80s, we were a basketball power that cheered on teams coached by hall of famer, Barry Haggin.  In the late '90s and into the 2000s, we have had the good fortune of making the 9-man football playoffs year after year.  When the teams are doing well, the town comes together.  School colors turn up every where.  I remember when they painted the watertower maroon and gray, likely a  risdual effect of the '98 State Champion football team.  We were fortunate as a community.  Of those 120+ teams, only 8 can make it to a state tournament each year.  If a school like Dickinson Trinity or Bottineau or New Town makes a run of 2 or 3 state tournaments in a row, that means a lot of schools have to miss out on the chance of lifetime to compete for a state title.  I can remember missing out on a trip to state a few times because our girls couldn't quite get past Watford City and their phenom point guard Molly Anderson. 

So I watched with interest yesterday as the games played out.  Divide County did not make it this year, but it still is important for me to watch. You cheer on the underdogs and hope that the team from your region represents you well.  But in the end, you celebrate along with the champion and swell up with small town pride. Unless of course the winner is Dickinson Trinity... or Minot Ryan... or Fargo Oak Grove.... haha.  Enjoy the tournaments!

In my previous post, I mentioned that we are looking for ways to help online students feel more connected to the campus community here in Fargo.  There has been a lot of brain storming, a lot of wrestling with ideas, and a lot of creative energy poured into the problem of online community so far and we think we've come up with a good starting point. 

My Fargo Campus Online

My Fargo Campus will provide students with a platform that is specific to the Fargo campus through which they can create a personal profile, connect with other students, participate in discussion outside the onine classroom environment, learn about campus happenings, and provide helpful feedback to campus staff and faculty. The environment is similar to that of popular social networking sites like Myspace or Facebook.  It not only provides a connection to the Fargo campus, but it also gives students an opportunity to develop online networking skills that will be valuable to them as they move on into the working world. 

I strongly encourage everyone to go, sing up, and start participating in the My Fargo Campus Online: