2019 Wrap-Up

Here we are at the end of 2019 and the end of the decade.  There is so much to say about how this entire decade has gone that I can barely summarize it.  When this decade started, I had a different set of job responsibilities, a lower level of education, a different set of pets (April and Hiko have been my only constants), a smaller circle of friends, a different house, and no children.  In nearly every way, my life has improved dramatically.  My career has advanced in so many ways, I have more degrees and certifications now, more friends, a dream house, and best of all, I now have my son Avery.  What a ride!  As I said in my Thanksgiving post, it is simply impossible to count my blessings because there are far too many.

The main point of this post, however, is to reflect on my goals for the year and see how they ended up.  The following table is the one that I posted at the beginning of the year but with progress updates.

Goals	Status	Notes
Continue to improve my physical health. I will walk 1,000 miles as measured by the pedometer on my phone and Google Maps. I will improve my flexibility and balance through brief daily and longer monthly activities. I will monitor and chart the progress toward my ideal body weight.	About 1/3 successful	As of December 26, my estimated walking distance passed 1,000 miles. (Success!) I have been doing minor stretching, but nothing near what I had intended. (Half a success.) My body weight spiked a few months ago and has since begun to come down, but I am still a few pounds heavier than when the year started. (Failure.)
Continue to improve my financial health by saving a specific amount between all of my accounts.	Success	I have reached my savings goal.  I'm setting a higher one next year.
Read 50 books.	Success	Thanks in large part to audio books and long commutes, I have far surpassed this goal.
Play 50 games.	Success	I have played all the following games and more at least once this year: Sequence Play Nine Bacterial Takeover Clicker Heroes Word Stacks Phrase Wheel Cat Robot Defense Old Maid Go Fish Ghostbusters: The Board Game Gauntlet:  Slayer Edition Overcooked Star Wars Battlefront Diablo III Castle Crashers Zen Idle Ghostbusters VR Power Painter Battleheart Portal Cat Quest Job Simulator Vacation Simulator Galaga Bridge Constructor Portal Ball Blast Clash of Blocks 5-Minute Dungeon Brick Breaker Champion Siralim Dig Dug Portal 2 Ghostbusters Blackout Idle Kingdom Clicker Aperture Tag Pac-Man Ticket to Ride Clicker Heroes 2 Space Pirates and Zombies Lost Treasure Smash Hit Payday Deadlock II Ancient Amuletor Endless Legend Kingdom Rush Star Command Polytopia Granny Legend Wii Sports Resort
Complete a Testing Tutor prototype for my dissertation by May.	Failure	For the fourth year in a row, this was a complete failure.  I temporarily dropped out of the program in the fall semester, since my coordinator duties are requiring my complete attention.  I don't know if or when I can resume.  As long as I am coordinator, I cannot foresee this happening.
Play music 50 times.	Failure	I played about three or four times, maybe.  Another huge but unsurprising disappointment.

So, as you can see, it was a largely successful year, though very far from a perfect one. I intend to make 2020 the start of my best decade ever, and it will come with a good set of goals to get the ball rolling.

Thank you, my friends, for your support!

Thanksgiving 2019

It used to be a tradition for me on Thanksgiving to make a blog post enumerating the many things for which I am thankful each year.  I've fallen out of the habit as my life has become far more busy and difficult.  If I were to do it this year, I was expecting it to be far less detailed than usual, due to the severe time constraints.  But fate has given me an opportunity in the form of a long train ride.

Here is a rundown of just some of the things for which I am truly and deeply thankful this year.  I realize it's a bit long, but as Roberto Benigni said, "It is a sign of mediocrity to demonstrate gratitude with moderation."

I am thankful for the abundance of good things in my life, such as...

Abundance of opportunity.  I am thankful to have multiple jobs that I love and countless opportunities to use my position, knowledge, and experience to improve the lives of others.  At the most basic level, this is all I ever wanted.  I'm still working on perfecting the details, but I am grateful for what I have.

Abundance of friends.  Social media keeps me connected with loved ones who are far away, and my varied and numerous job duties have led me to many new friends.  I cannot express enough appreciation for these new friends, many of whom have supported me in substantial ways with my work duties. The mere existence of these people has reminded me that miracles are normal and unexpected blessings can happen every day.

Abundance of money.  Though it rolls in and out like the tides, financial security is a major bright side to the fact that I spend nearly every waking moment working.  I may not have a lot of extra, but I have enough for my family's needs and that's perfect.

Abundance of good influences.  This year has inspired some of the greatest personal growth of my life, which I credit to good friends, good mentors, and good books.

Abundance of love.  All of the previous entries on this list really boil down to one thing -- the constant stream of love that flows through me continually, in and out as regularly as the sunrise.  Love is abundant in all areas of my life and it forms the basis of all my gratitude.

I am thankful for my things, such as...

My house which is my favorite home ever, my car which is my favorite car ever, my bike which is my favorite bike ever, my bass guitars which are my favorite guitars ever, my computers which are my favorite computers ever...and so on, and so on....

Most of all, I am thankful for the amazing people in my life, such as...

Avery for being my best buddy and the coolest kid I know.

Michelle for taking such excellent care of me, Avery, and our home. I honestly don't know how we would get by without her.

Carol Keeth for being my personal nurse consultant when my health isn't great, and one of my very best friends all the time.  I literally cannot enumerate all of the meaningful things she has done for me and my family over the years.

Antigone Sharris for being my mentor and sharing her secrets on how she works the miracles that make her department such a huge success.

Jean Dugo for helping me find the data I need in order to make informed decisions, and for regularly reminding me that I'm never alone and always have someone around to help if I just reach out and ask.

Jennifer Davidson, my new boss, for being a truly motivational leader and a tremendous source of support in times of need. I find that my fear of letting her down far outweighs my fear of any sort of reprimand.

Sandy Poremba, for saving my butt more times than I can count...even as recently as this week!

Rami Salahieh for opening new doors in my career and allowing me to do the same for him. Also for lending mutual support in dealing with the needless frustrations inflicted by our mutual employer (who shall remain nameless for that is contrary to the point of this post).

Dawn Brokaw for being an outstanding long-distance friend.  I never know how to express my appreciation for the tiny morsels of kindness and encouragement that she sprinkles throughout my weeks or our unique, almost sibling-like bond.  I haven't seen her in about 13 years but that fact has done little to hinder our friendship.

Ralph Normington, on the subject of long-distance friends, for remaining my friend even though it sometimes takes me several days to respond to his messages. When an impatient person chooses to be patient with you, that means something!

Steve Santello for the various ways that he has boosted my career over the years, from giving advice to helping me think things through to offering me exciting teaching opportunities.  I can't even count them all.

Natalie Waksmanski for being a great mentee (formerly) and a great friend. I was honored to be a guest at her wedding reception last weekend. I wish her a lifetime of happiness in all areas of her life.

Mary Ann Fleming for her immense generosity.  She has given so much of herself for the good of me, my family, and many others who are fortunate enough to know her. If I lived for 128 years, I would not have enough resources to repay all of her kindness.

Carl Hultquist for bringing decades of love and happiness to my family. His funeral was on Thanksgiving Eve this year.  He will be missed.

If pets are people too, I must include April and Zeena.  April is one of my favorite pets ever and I appreciate her grace, patience, gentleness, elegance, and natural beauty.  She's the biggest and friendliest spider I've ever known and I love her dearly.  I'm still getting to know Zeena, but I already appreciate her impressive physical feats, her adorable timidity, and her gorgeous markings.

As I've written this list, I have realized the utter impossibility of listing everyone for whom I have sincere, heartfelt gratitude.  I could go on all night:  Judy and Roger McVey, Jill LoBianco, Dan Mottert, John Owrey, Mo Habeeb, Rathi Ramakrishnan, Patty Hultquist, Janet and Lloyd Rahn, Karina Martin, Humberto Espino, Tim Nystrom, Eric Morton, Tanvi Bhatt, Deb Baker, Katy McGuinness, Lauren Kosrow, my entire program assessment subcommittee, the group of dedicated faculty who report to me, the many people who support me in my leadership and teaching roles, my treasured extended family, my social media friends...the list goes on and on.  I can't possibly mention everyone!

Perhaps I should just summarize it all with an expression of thanks for the seemingly infinite blessings in my life.  "Count your blessings" is an oft-repeated bit of advice, but mine are too numerous to count.  That's a great problem to have.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

A Comparison of My Current Employers

Since I started regularly working for three different employers, I have been asked questions about how they compare with each other. People are understandably curious about how other similar organizations operate.  I personally think it's healthy and productive to see how others do things so we can all gauge and improve our own effectiveness.

To answer these questions,  I started listing some of the differences that I have noticed between my workplaces.  I have steadily grown this list over the past semester, and I now feel that it is complete enough and accurate enough to share.

I will rate and score each organization on each criterion. A score of 3 indicates that this organization is the best of the three in this aspect, while 1 indicates the worst.

Criteria	Triton College	College of DuPage	DeVry	Category Winner
Communication to employees	2	3	1	COD's internal newsletters are excellent, and the emails regarding campus events are nonstop.
Social responsibility	3	2	1	Triton genuinely cares for the community they serve, they actively seek ways to better support it, and are constantly offering fun and educational events to the public.
Academic freedom	2	3	1	COD wins for two reasons. First, their course outlines are excellent, clearly and concisely enumerating the learning objectives without the unnecessary pages of assessment details and hourly breakdowns that Triton's contain. Second, they are not constrained by the same articulations that Triton is obligated to follow. Triton runs a close second, however, as faculty have loosely-monitored, godlike powers in their classrooms. Academic freedom is notoriously limited at DeVry, who prescribes the entire content of their courses.
Classroom facilities	1	3	2	COD's rooms may smell weird, but they're spacious, well lit, and have all of the technology to support all of their courses in every room. Whiteboard space is also plentiful (an understatement), as are markers, erasers, and printer paper. Triton loses here mostly because of the poor lighting design and lack of supplies, and DVU loses because of the limited whiteboard space (covered by the projection screen) and restrictions on what we can do with the classroom computers.
Faculty/staff lounge	1	2	3	DeVry has comfortable and lightly used staff lounges at most of their campuses. These lounges feature fridges, microwaves, plenty of tables, and soft, comfortable seating. I am unaware of whether COD has such a thing, but I know for certain that my building at Triton does not.
Campus	3	2	1	Triton has a spacious, well-landscaped, and beautiful campus. COD has amazing buildings, but their campus is almost entirely occupied by them and parking lots. DeVry's environment has been accurately described as "corporate" and "sterile".
External community events	3	2	1	Triton, as I mentioned above, has community events on campus for the public all the time -- nearly every day, in fact.
Internal community events	2	3	1	COD also has events going on constantly, but they're oriented more toward the internal campus community rather than the general public. They do have public events, but not on the continual daily basis that Triton does.
Faculty workload	3	2	1	Triton faculty are under the direction of a clear-cut, union-backed contract.  Anything that we do outside of that contract potentially involves extra pay or some other perk. The only reason COD loses here is because their faculty are also expected to serve as official student advisors -- a good and reasonable thing, but it is extra work. DeVry tends to load faculty with as much work as possible.
Schedule planning	2	3	1	COD has their schedules determined several months in advance.  Triton operates on the scale of weeks (a couple of months at best) in advance, while DeVry is still bumbling days in advance.
Course offerings	2	3	1	COD offers many sections of most classes, and wait lists still form.  Triton offers multiple sections of a few, but many of their offerings rarely (if ever) run. DeVry offers relatively few onsite classes.
Commute from home	2	3	1	COD is around 30 to 40 minutes in normal traffic. Triton is usually around 50. With DeVry, it varies greatly based on which campus I'm going to, but my old office was well over an hour away in the lightest traffic; nearly two hours if weather, construction, or congestion interfered.
Electric vehicle friendliness	3	2	1	Triton has three conveniently located Chargepoint stations. COD has one station that has been out of service the entire time I've worked there. DeVry has none unless you can find a public one within walking distance, which is rare.
Technology support	1	2	3	DeVry wins this category in general because every campus has their own friendly and competent IT staff who are empowered to do whatever I need them to do at any time. COD is a close second simply because I have never needed IT support there due to their excellent classroom facilities as mentioned above. Triton loses here because their PCs are missing applications that I like to use in class, plus they wrap a lot of  perplexing red tape around IT requests.
Textbook ordering process	1	3	2	COD makes this effortless. I remind my coordinator what I'm teaching and a textbook magically appears in my campus mailbox. DeVry is a close second because their textbooks are all electronic and appear automatically, but they're temporary and can't be kept. Triton requires us to contact the publishers ourselves to request books.
Classroom access	2	3	1	COD gives me an employee ID card that unlocks all of the classrooms with a swipe. Triton requires that I fill out paperwork to request physical keys from the campus police department every semester. DeVry makes us hunt down a security guard or IT personnel to open classrooms.
Snow days	2	3	1	COD tends to cancel classes due to weather at reasonable times and in a timely fashion. Triton waits until it's almost too late most of the time. DeVry rarely ever cancels at all, though they have recently shown a huge improvement in judgement on such matters.
Paperwork	1	3	2	COD wins easily because there is never a need for physical paper to ever be used for anything. Their technology infrastructure handles it all electronically. DeVry has an infrastructure that is nearly as good, but is mired by micromanagement regarding its use. Triton is the only one who relies on actual paper, and they rely on it for nearly EVERYTHING. It would be comical and quaint if it weren't so embarrassing and tragic.
Course shell setup	2	3	1	COD wins for reasons that are easy to see when compared to the other two. Like DeVry, COD's course shells are automatically created for every class. Like Triton (but unlike DeVry), we have complete control over the entire content of the shells. So, DeVry loses because faculty are not allowed to own their shells, and Triton loses because the shells must be explicitly requested individually for every class every semester.

So, all in all, who wins?

Shall we choose the victor based on number of categories won?  If so, the scores would be:

• Triton:  5
• COD:  12
• DeVry:  2

Or should we simply add up their point values?

• Triton:  38
• COD:  50
• DeVry:  26

No matter how you score it, it's easy to see that Triton College and College of DuPage are both excellent places to work.  COD takes the lead mostly due to the cleanliness and simplicity of their well-defined processes, an area which appears to be a major weakness at Triton.  (For instance, my on-boarding process at Triton was sloppy and confusing, and to this day I have not completed everything I was told to do.)  Nevertheless, I love working at both places and hope to continue for many years to come.

So, I can say that College of DuPage is an outstanding place to work, Triton College is a great place to work, and DeVry University is another place to work.

Hopefully this satisfies the curiosity of my friends and colleagues who have wondered.  If not, you all know how to reach me.  (Better idea:  Visit me on campus and see for yourself!)

Bring In On, 2019!

Ladies, gentlemen, and...others, here are my goals for 2019!

Goals	Status	Notes
Continue to improve my physical health. I will walk 1,000 miles as measured by the pedometer on my phone and Google Maps. I will improve my flexibility and balance through brief daily and longer monthly activities. I will monitor and chart the progress toward my ideal body weight.	0%	These goals are repeats from last year.  My success ranged from moderate to none, so I'm trying again.  I intend to succeed at all three sub-goals.
Continue to improve my financial health by saving a specific amount between all of my accounts.	70%	I have a specific dollar amount in mind that I would like to save. I will track my success by totaling the balances in my accounts and calculating the percentage of my overall goal.  The percentage here represents how close to the goal I am now.  It is highly likely to rise and fall through the year.
Read 50 books.	0%	Last year I specified "non-work related" books. This year I'm counting all books of every kind and source.
Play 50 games.	16%	All games count: board games, card games, video games, mobile games, any games. I'm counting games played during my New Year's celebrations and mobile games: Sequence Play Nine Bacterial Takeover Clicker Heroes Word Stacks Phrase Wheel Cat Robot Defense Old Maid
Complete a Testing Tutor prototype for my dissertation by May.	10%	This goal was an utter failure last year, but the fall semester brought some inspiration and unexpected help.  I'm renewing it and starting again with a head start.
Play music 50 times.	0%	I have a new acoustic bass that needs to be broken in, right?  Gonna play it a lot, and my old electric bass, too.