A Year of Change

I recently gathered many Student Council photos from the past year to put together some photos to be displayed at St. Michael's Educational Sports Bar & Grille. St. Michael's is our student hang out and the place where we hold our monthly meetings. I know it may sound weird to hold Student Council meetings at a bar but some how it works.... it works very well. The atmosphere is so conducive to getting new perspectives out on the table and to having everyone relaxed during the meeting. With this said I should note that during our meeting we are not partaking of items from the bar but just from the kitchen :)

The owners of St. Michael's were very excited about having Forest call this place our hang out that they even offered to put up any memorabilia that we brought them. So at our last meeting we gave them some of our official t-shirts and these photos. Hence, I needed to gather the photos.

While I was doing this I realized how many changes our Council has been involved with this year. In some strange form of synchronicity it was also the year the name of the school officially changed along with a new logo. It was simply a year of change for Forest Institute. It has certainly been an honor to be involved in these changes. With change comes many expectations, I certainly am hopeful of the impact these many changes will have on the future at Forest Institute.

Supply & Demand at Spring 2008 Registration

Since arriving at the Forest Institute campus back in the summer of 2006 I have registered a total of 6 times. Each time I have arrived to the campus around 8:45 am, usually just before a 9:00 am class, and dropped off my registration with no problem. This registration was different, much different......

I was told by Phillip Raleigh, the guy with all the info, that registration was taking on an all new form. There were many courses that had not only been capped but also sought after by more than the cap, many more. I knew I was going to have to arrive early.... of course early is a subjective measurement.


I arrived at 7:00am and was very surprised at the number of cars already in the parking lot. Once the doors opened I found myself in line behind around 15 other students. As we waited for registration to begin at 8:00am people continued to slowly file into line behind us. By the time I had finished my registration there was a line like I had never seen. Registration certainly did take on another form. Some how we have become a school with limited, yet highly sought after resources, especially including our courses.

A Week of Matching & Clearinghouse

This week was the "great & terrible" week of Match and Clearinghouse for the internship applicants. Within my role in Student Council I have been able to experience this both last year and this year. What I take from these experiences is that it is stressful, no matter how you slice it, simply stressful.

The basic idea here is that APPIC serves as the mediator between interns and internship sites. It is through APPIC that interns obtain application requirements and related information regarding the many sites available. When the time comes you apply by sending massive envelopes of internship application materials to each site you desire to apply to. Then if you are fortunate you are extended interviews to some of the sites. After interviews you rank the sites that extended interviews as they too rank those who interviewed. APPIC tabulates the rankings and then: POOF the Match has occurred. However, for one reason or another some interns will still be without a placement and some sites without an intern. This could be because the interns were not extended an interview or simply did not get ranked high by the sites they ranked high. Regardless, those without a placement then participate in Clearinghouse.

This is when all the sites without interns and all the interns without a site are directed by APPIC to begin emailing and calling each other to fill in the holes. A very stressful time, many choices must be made very quickly, not fun. Sometimes you land a good site, sometimes a bad one, and sometimes none at all.

Each year the Student Council assist the internship applicants during clearinghouse. This opportunity to assist and gain first-hand experience is of greater value than any other preparation for this process. I again have gained great insight as to how I plan to approach this capstone event of my time at Forest.

Geocaching and Pho

My best friend, Ray, stopped in for a short visit and so I decided to take advantage of the situation and introduce him to the wonderful sport of Geocaching. Despite the torrential down pour I was determined to help him find a cache. My hope was of course to share with him something I have quickly come to love. My accomplishment was far from my hope. Oh yes we broke out the handheld gps, we drove to the identified area, but it was when it came down to getting out of the car that the hunt went sour. The rain would not stop and neither would my stubbornness on finding a cache. In the end we were drenched but we were successful!

Ray did seem somewhat happy about the idea that we found this hidden surprise but in the end he was very wet and wet certainly does not equate to happy in the middle of the winter. So I figured it would be a good time to warm up to some hot soup. This of course led to me persuading Ray to introduce me to his native palate. Ray was born in Vietnam and although grew up in America clearly had a traditional Vietnamese home life. Thus when I attempt to get him to take me to Vietnamese restaurants he dismisses the idea because he figures he can make the food better than any restaurant. However, he was cold, wet and hungry and so he finally gave in. We headed for Bambu, the local Vietnamese restaurant.

Ray introduced me to the menu which was in both Vietnamese and English. He directed me to some "safe" selections for my first experience and we jumped right in to these BIG BOWLS of PHO (f-u). I thought it was the greatest soup ever, I am soup guy and this was like Disney Land for my belly. Even Ray agreed that the food was very close to traditional and gave his stamp of approval. I mean after all, we are in Missouri, to satisfy Ray is a big deal, at least in my book. We quickly warmed up, ate well and enjoyed some great conversation.

Geocaching and Pho, a good day indeed!

To learn more about Bambu home of Springfield's best Vietnamese cuisine check out their website. www.springfieldbambu.com

passing my time one Root Beer at a time

Training to become a doctor of clinical psychology comes with many rewards. I have learned so much since arriving here at Forest Institute and I have experienced so much more. But it would be a bit over-reaching to declare that it has all been stress-free. In fact at times it becomes extremely overwhelming..... thats where root beer comes in, at least for me anyway.

Last March I began a tasteful journey with an olde-time friend of mine named Jeff. He and I go way back, we served in the Navy together and would send each other root beer through the mail as we explored the country. Well we came up with this crazy idea to make this effort a little more productive. Our idea realized in the form of a blog all about the American born brew known as root beer. Jeff and I submit posts about the current and historical world of root beer and also offer our own commentary on brews we come across.
Having this to distract me has at times been that much needed break from the demands of school and work. Aside from that it has also been one tasty way to spend my time in graduate school.

Certainly I would not prescribe that everyone should "pop a top" and sip down a nice cold root beer and blog about it to assist them through their graduate school experience. However, I would suggest that each graduate student find something that they can use as that personal positive distraction to break up the very relentless demands of our IEP (individualized education plan). If nothing else, you could simply pull up a chair, pop a top, and sip down some of the smoothest blog on the net at The Rootbeer Brothers.

Springfield's Gems: Best of 417 Awards 2008

There are not many magazines I would ever admit to reading. I assure you that the list is short and carries a theme, guy stuff. I am talking Field & Stream, Missouri Game & Fish, Off-Road Adventures, Outdoor Life, Rangefinder and for my spiritual side I also pick up the Ensign. What you will not find on my list is girly magazines, like Cosmo, People, Elle, or Better Homes & Gardens. However, with all that said there is one magazine that is not like the others on my list that I am proud to admit to reading, 417 Magazine.



417 provides the outs and ins of everything Springfield and also the local areas like Branson. In those pages I have often learned about little gems I may never have known of any other way. There are museums, caves, parks, and festivals all usually free of charge or nearly free and all worth checking out. I found them all through 417 Magazine. Over the last year and a half however I have come to learn that the most important issue of 417 during the year is that which reports the "Best of 417 Awards". There are many reasons a person would want this issue, for me it is all about the food. I have followed the advice from the 2007 awards and have never been terribly disappointed. In fact normally I am amazed! These awards are right on the money, trust me.

The categories that I pay close attention to are of course the Best of Cashew Chicken and the Best of Local Restaurants and the Best of New Local Restaurants. I certainly encourage you to pick up your eating and everything Springfield "Best of" guide this month while they are hot off the press.

Best Cashew Chicken 2008
Hong Kong Inn

Best Local Restaurant 2008
Ocean Zen

Best New Local Restaurant 2008
Kai

I got one word for you..... Twins

It was supposed to be just a routine follow-up from Kristy's first visit with her doctor which verified that we were expecting our third child. This visit was supposed to be a health and wellness check to make sure Kristy was doing good. Even though Kristy was told that no ultrasound would be done on this visit she was still hopeful that they would change their mind. We were just excited to get a glimpse of the newest member of our family. Well the check-up went great, Kristy was deemed healthy but there was one concern, the baby appeared to be developing in size way too fast... Kristy got her wish, the doctor ordered an ultrasound to verify the due date. The photo above was just before we obtained the ultrasound, I am sure at this moment Kristy was simply excited that we were going to get that glimpse of our new baby.......

The funny thing about this is that Kristy has always said how much fun having twins would be. In fact one of her good friends just had a set of twins last summer and Kristy was nothing less than jealous. I kept reminding Kristy that she just could not order a set but she was determined that she too would experience this blessing.

The ultrasound technician started the ultrasound and not 30 seconds into it she boldly said "well that’s why, you're having twins" I asked her if she was kidding and she stated that she never kids about something like that. I wish I could explain the excitement Kristy and I were feeling, we were simply overwhelmed. We have been smiling ever since!

Now this will certainly be an interesting experience as we continue on our journey of education but now too will learn something many will never know, the life of raising twins. I can't wait!