This is Halloween!

I know Halloween is tomorrow, but a special post for a special day. Okay, well a special day for me and your child or children if you have 'em. Halloween was always the time for me to eat so much candy it made my dentist cringe and a time to be creative. In my house their was never a shortage of creativity and child-like enthusiasm.

Carving pumpkins was a great family activity. The whole family would spread last week's newspaper over the kitchen table pumpkins would be sliced open, gutted and cut to specifications. When my sister and I were young, we did simple pumpkin carvings. That quintssential three triangles and a cresent mouth. As we got older, designs became more intricate and not nessesarily because of any stencils. See, Dad is an artist... well and art teacher. One of his more intricate designs required him to slice away small portions of the pumpkin rind, but never cut through all the way. It gave a great glowing effect. So my sister and I started to use the shape of the pumpkins to use in the design.

If you haven't carved a pumpkin in your life or it has been a while since the last time, I suggest you do so today. It is a great way to break out of the doldrums of gloomy weather and that 9 to 5 you show-up to five days a week. Not to mention, it is a great way to take out stress. (In a macabre kind of way)

Don't rain on my parade

It's that time of year again! No, not Halloween. No, definitely not time for Thanksgiving or Christmas (or Hanukkah). It is time for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Yes, I realize that the abbreviation spells "sad". I didn't make this up... the drug companies did. A lot like Restless Leg Syndrome. Unlike the later, I can tell when the people around me are coming down with SAD.

It happens when the weather gets colder and you can count on more cloudy days than sunny. People tend to get a little more grumpy and start dragging ass. It is the time for people to start saying things like, "the weekend went by too fast" just a little too often. As a life-long inhabitant of the North I have a solution. When you're feeling like you would rather jump off the roof of your apartment building or house than go to work, it's time to buddy-up. Or go make some new friends.

What I'm trying to say is go find some people and go do something. It's a long winter, especially in the Chicago area, and it is important to stay a little more upbeat. Hey Chicago, let's not go turning into New York because of a little less sun.

Giving back to the students

How's your Monday going? Not so well? The consensus so far is that the weekend went by too fast. I have to agree. I've been writing a paper for the last week and a half. It's like pulling teeth at this point. That's how I spent the majority of this last weekend. But the week before I was actually doing something that I'm quite proud of.

As an Alumni of Central Michigan University, I would like to give back to the students. Personally, I like to give the students something that they can see is from alumni. You know, instead of some random monetary donation that they will possibly never see. I spoke to a group of English major students at Central Michigan University about getting their careers started now while still in school. I guess I could have told them to follow my example, but I believe I was simply lucky to even be where I am. I want to see these students succeed after all.

Of course this message was shared by the professor of that class and a friend of mine; Dr. Ronald Primeau. Dr. Primeau is instrumental as that kind of professor that would bring people from the field into class to show us how professionals do things. Being stuck in that ivory tower is not good for the imagination or ego. Or... maybe that's just my bias. I was told that the students enjoyed the discussion that day and so did Career Services.

Professor Primeau and myself will be working with CMU Career Services to put on a panel discussion for CMU Students about Preparing for Your Career the first part of February. If you're a CMU student and reading this please pencil this event into your planner. This will be a great event to attend!