_18:29
The Proposal
Instead of telling you myself I’ve decided to just let Jodi tell you all.
Jodi - you have the floor
Aaron asked me to marry him this past Sunday morning and I was crazy enough to say YES!!! hee hee … We’re ENGAGED!
I called him this Sunday morning and asked him to stop by and see me. I was stressed out because I was having my parents over for dinner and I didn’t feel like I had enough time to get everything done. So he said he would be at the house in a few minutes … 30 minutes later he knocks on the door and I greet him along with the 3 different bouquets of flowers he had in his hands.
I thought he was being sympathetic to my stress and just wanted to give me something to smile about … but he brought me into the living room and gave me the first flower, a white rose, that he said symbolized our past, then the second flower, a red rose, to symbolize our present. Last he gave me a dozen long stem red roses to symbolize our future.
At this point I’m trying to smell the flowers and thinking “what a great guy”. Meanwhile he’s reaching into his pocket, getting on one knee and asking, “Jodi, will you marry me?”
(alot of giggling) … and I said Yes :-)
posted on February 24, 2003| 6:37 PM EST
_17:32
I’m getting married
When I was in my early teens life revolved around the skating scene. I woke up early to skate, I skated with guys at the park/street, I watched, read, & talk about skating, and I skated before going to bed. My friends were all skaters and shared the same passion for the sport as I did.
Women didn’t really have much of an effect on our lives at this point. We liked them, of course, but mostly for looking at and receiving profound praise for our skating ability.
I remember one summer, while dating a cute girl; I was asked to choose between my skates or her. I’m not really sure what came of my decision because I had to postpone the conversation to skate with some buddies.
A couple years passed and the same group slowly began to exchange their skates in for college books. After being gone for a year, many of them came back with girlfriends.
Talk of the newest moves in the skate industry slowly changed into the discussion of job security, relationships and future dreams. At this point women started to become a part of this talk.
Jumping ahead a couple years
Women are now very much a part of all our lives. The same group that poked fun of skipping a skate session to see a woman is now poking jokes to those that aren’t in a relationship.
Not too much later we began to ask one another if we were ready to marry these women. Some claimed ?No?, while others began spreading word of their engagement to this person and that person. (Instance 1, Instance 2)
It’s amazing how life changes and how far we’ve come from those days of watching out for cooties.
It’s my turn now
To add to all change in the world I’ve thrown one more into the hat. Jodi and I are now engaged. I asked her Sunday morning to be my wife and she gladly said yes.
So what happened to that little boy that made fun of relationships and skated his days away? He found a real women and he realized what he was missing.
So if you haven’t quite picked up on this little story - I’m now engaged to Jodi Broersma. Do I know what I?m getting myself into? Not really ? but I?m excited to see what happens.
posted on | 6:27 PM EST
_00:36
How Much I Read Weekly
With all that I have going on I started to wonder how much I actually read in a weeks time. So I sat down and came up with a quick estimate. Odds are I’ve skipped something. I think I’ve under estimated as well but the total was amazing to me.
Articles:
15 articles a day - 3 pages on average
15articles x 3pages = 45pages
45pages x 7days = 315pages per week
Email:
1 page per email
20 emails per day (not counting SPAM) x 1 page = 20 pages
(Not counting the mailing lists I?m a part of - 200+ emails a day)
School Work:
1 chapter (Sociology) - 30pages
10pages (English)
English x Sociology = 40pages
Misc:
5 pages
(Random reading: instructions on toothpaste, AIM, to do lists from boss etc?)
Total:
Articles + Email + School Work + Misc =
410 pages per week
How close is this to what you do?
posted on February 21, 2003| 12:42 AM EST
_9:53
Welcome Davenport Teachers
This site has seem to obtain a small bit of attention from the teaching staff at
Davenport University - the college I am currently going to. The topic at hand is the post I wrote not more than a couple days ago on - “
Not Adapting to School”.
Welcome to theparagon.ORG - Davenport staff. This is the site of that kid sitting in your class. For the past couple years I’ve placed my thoughts and ideas on life without edit for the world to see. I’ve talked about everything from - my first impressions of class to current technology trends and that bad day I had. It’s been a way for me to let my thoughts out - almost as if everyone in the world was a person I confided in.
So if you’re reading this and have received the memo of a kid that may be paying someone to do his homework for him - think again. Everyone that has gone to college or has had to endure the stress of life has wished there were an easier way. The hope of winning the lottery (not the same lottery we learned about in Sociology), the relief of someone helping you out in a time of need, or getting something for nothing is in us all.
So do I wish I could just pay someone to do my work for me? Of course I do. Am I doing that? I’m going to say “No”, but let you come to your own conclusions. A little help in making that decision might be to actually look at what I write. If I was paying someone to do my work don’t you think I would pick someone that could write much better than the work you’ve received? Also look at my current social status - I’m a college student.
When you were a college student, did you have any money? Probably not - unless you were one of those lucky kids that had your parents pay for everything and still had enough left over to give you your allowance.
So think on that a minute.
While I have your attention
College is a great place for a young mind to grow. You’ve probably been teaching for years and have taught in places other than Davenport University. All I want to say is keep that same energy you had when you first knew you wanted to become a teacher. You’ve picked an amazing position in life and have the ability form young minds into greatness.
Stay excited about what you’re doing and remember how much you loved that one teacher you had. You know - that one that gave you a smile and went that extra step to ensure you understood what they were trying to teach you.
Anyways - That’s all I have to say today but look forward to seeing ya in class.
posted on February 19, 2003| 9:53 AM EST
_17:03
Newspapers and blogging
While reading over all the articles surrounding the recent buyout of Pyra I was reminded of a conversation I had two days ago with the
Holland Sentinel and
Morris Communications. I brought up the idea of introducing our news writers to blogging.
Long story short - they told me that blogging was a fad and that it would die out in the near future. They didn’t want to get into the blogging scene. This is an interesting oversight from two companies and the boldness of their quick commenting accusation despite everything that is going on is actually shocking.
Dan Gillmor stats:
The buyout is a huge boost to an enormously diverse genre of online publishing that has begun to change the equations of online news and information. Weblogs are frequently updated, with items appearing in reverse chronological order (the most recent postings appear first).
Typically they include links to other pages on the Internet, and the topics range from technology to politics to just about anything you can name. Many weblogs invite feedback through discussion postings, and weblogs often point to other weblogs in an ecosystem of news, opinions and ideas.
This is much more than newspapers can currently offer without blogging and it’s what people are starting to turn toward. Society understands that giant companies, newspapers, and media in general control what information we see, hear, and read.
… Weblogs are also becoming a valuable communication tool for groups of people, and have begun to infiltrate the corporate, university and government spheres.
So should companies like The Holland Sentinel and Morris.com overlook these innovations in technology? Absolutely Not! What’s sad is their amount of denial and misunderstanding of these new forms of communication. They so badly want to hang onto their printing machines and gallons of ink. Readers don’t want to wait until 10:00pm or 11:00pm to hear the news - and why should they?
Meanwhile, during the fast pace of technology, I’m stuck in meetings with company leaders to determine how much more advertisement we can cramp into our website and how we’re going to survive. All the while, completely overlooking what is currently going on around us and opening our doors to change and innovative ways of doing our every dayís task.
UPDATE
If I can also add - Newspapers aren’t currently able to cover and produce everything that is going on. When I read about the Google/Blogger.com buyout, there wasn’t a newspaper around that even had a chance to say anything. I still haven’t seen any newspaper talk about ESPN.com’s current stradigy to redesign their site. A site that is visited almost more than any other sports site on the planet.
posted on February 16, 2003| 5:01 PM EST
