New York City and More Digital Photo's

East Village, NYC

I'm wrapping up my short visit to NYC, and pushing on to the Berkshires of Mass tomorrow. I shot some more pictures today. Here is a small taste.

Empire State Building

Washington Square Park is just around the corner from my brothers apartment. It is ringed by New York University in the East Village, and is about as New York as it gets. I love the movie When Harry Met Sally, and below is two stills from the movie filmed in 1989, and then a picture I took this evening. Notice the Twin Trade Towers framed in the Arch from 89. 

Enjoy!

CC

New York City and the Post Christmas Blizzard

East Village, New York City

Mission? Visiting my Brother and His Family

Jazzed? You Bet!
Still working on my digital photography

Grace Church Broadway and East 10th

 The official count is 20 inches measured in Central Park. There is something so charming about New York City during, and then after a heavy snowfall. I arrived yesterday from Shelton Connecticut just as the storm was ramping up. Here are some pictures I took over the past couple of days.

St. Marks Place shot on the iPhone4


New York City December 27th 2010 from B. Kim on Vimeo.

I love coming to New York, and this visit has been made even more special given the weather and all the photo opportunities. Just wish I was a better photographer.

Blast From The Past

Mount Rainier Washington 1989

CC


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Internships, Networking and the Business of Life

Shelton Connecticut

Mission? Visiting family

Networking

It's weird transitioning in life. Were all constantly in a state of transition or becoming. It boils down to a matter of degree.  Since I left active duty in September of 2007, and began Christian Allaire's Sailing Life and Other Adventures, I've been in near constant state of hyper transition, while never really gaining my footing. Once I determined to make a bold move to stop sailing and head out to San Francisco, I really went into a state of flux.


Since arriving in San Rafael, California last June, I've begun to find my stability. It is the first tine that I know of where I've arrived in a new town and not had the latent pressure of a move or transfer looming. This has been liberating, even more so than what one would think given I had the total freedom of sailing around the planet for as long as I wanted. That, as some know, did not turn out to be my cup of tea.


That is the business of life.


One thing the U.S. Coast Guard taught me was the value of networking. The trend of social media is one big gigantic networking tool. However, in my opinion it still boils down to personal relationships, brought on my happenstance, some luck and initiative. I am grateful to have been born with a gregarious nature which has assisted in networking. I have no problem busting a move on someone to find out what the program is.


Case in point. In October at Dominican University, I attended a job fair featuring about 50 companies looking higher college graduates. It is interesting to note that I have over a year and half before I graduate, so why would I attend? I thought it a perfect networking opportunity and a way to start learning about the mysterious world of internships. Well it worked. I gripped and grinned, schmoozed and practiced the art of informal interaction with potential employers. Worked on my 30 second "commercial" pimping out my strengths. I scored an internship interview with a big financial services company in downtown San Francisco. I went and interviewed in a high-rise with folks in suits and ties and presented very well. I was offered a position, but turned it down because I couldn't commit the time needed without jeopardizing my time spent study. What a great practice secession and learning experience.


I make it a habit of asking a lot of questions of many people, especially people who I informally determine may be succeeding in the world of work. I'm trying to learn and penetrate into a world I'm not versed in. My yoga habit is predominately about the fitness and health created. A close second would be the folks one meets, beautiful women included, but think about this statement. Losers do not have the motivation to practice yoga. What this means is that the people who attend are generally successful people, and some very very successful. During short conversations, before or after class, I've had a couple of enlightening conversations with fellow yoga folk. One girl inspired me greatly with a quick story about how she attained an art history degree, and somehow ended up making six figures selling software. She is not abnormal. This type of situation can be created with proper networking and social skills.


A few weeks back, I got to chit chatting with a guy who I bump in to at least a couple days a week. His name is David Gottesman, and he has successfully started three or four IT companies. He is a tech guy who looks like Mr. Clean. I told him my program, that I was looking for an internship to gain some exposure in different fields. He graciously agreed to meet up with me at a Starbucks, showed me what he is involved in and has agreed to take me on. Stoked. This is an informal situation, where over a period of time I start to learn about his world while not losing focus on my studies, and more importantly, hopefully, I can contribute to his enterprise.


Dave started a company called Ashburymusichall.com. When he showed me what was up, I was pretty impressed with the company. The user interface is built for music teachers to interact and teach students. But, it could be tweaked for many other situations where people need to interact and collaborate. Pretty cool stuff. With a little luck and some motivation on my part, hopefully I can maybe get involved with this company. Check out the video below, and don't forget to spend some time on Ashburymusichall.com. Take a music lesson why don't you!

Blast From The Past

That is Seaman Allaire flexing after leading the barby plucking detail from the hanger roof in 1989, aboard USCGC Polar Sea, somewhere in the south pacific.  Enjoy!

Capt Chris


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Happy Winter Solstice!

Shelton Connecticut
Mission? Visiting family for Christmas


Today is December 21st, otherwise known as the first day of winter. It is also the time of year when you start seeing commercials for the Chia Pet. Cha cha cha cha CHIA! That aside, the winter solstice is the day when the earth tilts at 26 degrees 26 seconds reaching its maximum angle away from the sun. What this means for us in the states is the suns rays strike the earth at its sharpest angle, meaning the rays are spread out over a larger distance. This is why, generally speaking, our side of the planet doesn't heat up in the winter. Since we are a round blue ball, the poles always receive the suns rays at sharper angles all year round, and thus doesn't heat up much. Under the same rule, the equator pretty much receives blunt  angles of sunlight all year round resulting in year round balmy temperatures. All of this is represented in the graphic below.

As I reported earlier, I'm going to start adding a "Blast From the Past" picture at the end of my blog posts for the foreseeable future. Since arriving on the east coast, I've accessed all my old pictures I've accrued over the years. It is funny, and quite logical, that the older one gets the more history is produced. I wonder what the human desire to leave a legacy is all about. Any psychologists out there what to chime in and tell us what is up with that?

Blast From the Past

USCGC Polar Sea in the southern ocean 1989

I took this picture when Polar Sea was on its way to Antarctica. The seas south of New Zealand and Australia were always huge. I shot this as all three of us were in utter shock that the ocean was coming aboard. All three of us almost went overboard. We surely would have perished. Surprisingly my little Vivitar camera was not damaged, other than a small dent. Dan Boller on the right didn't even know the wave was a comin! 

Capt Chris

East Coast Update

Shelton Connecticut

The Kid December 20th 2010

 
Since arriving at my sisters house I've been engaged mostly in the grand archiving project. I've stored the bulk of all my crap in my sisters basement ever since I moved aboard Christa, including all my old school photographs. I've been taking digital pictures of the old pictures and then loading them onto Facebook and my Picasa Web Albums. I now have thousands of pictures loaded into Picasa. Please surf on over and check them out by clicking http://picasaweb.google.com/home.

I've also learned that it is possible to now upload HD Video to Picassa, and it seems to me it plays clearer on Picasa. Maybe a sleight of eye. The rub is, embed code is not provided, so I can't embed a video from Picasa. It does allow me to centrally locate all my photo's and videos. Now that I'm creating a larger collection, the management of all the material becomes important. Not sure why I love catagorizing everything, but I do. Below is a screen shot of a video from Picasa.

 I've generally loaded all my pictures from Antarctica and my first tour in the U.S. Coast Guard aboard Polar Sea. Also many pictures from Lake Tahoe and some sailing along the California coast early after I bought Christa in 1998. So please check it out and leave some comments to!

Capt Chris

PS: Happy 70th Birthday to my Dad!

Christian Allaire Is on the Road

Shelton Connecticut
At my Sisters

I rolled out of San Francisco this past Tuesday for a smooth month on the east coast. I'm be visiting family and friends during the period. I've used my sisters house for a storage facility for as long as I can remember. Living aboard a boat creates issues with space obviously. Over the years I've accumulated stuff I just don't want to part with.

As I mentioned in my December 10th post, I've always loved taking pictures. I built up quite a library of old school photo albums from days past. I'm now taking digital pictures of all my pictures and archiving them in the cloud and on Facebook, as well as on my MacBook for further back-up. It's been great fun to skulk through the past. Kind of gives you a check on how life has gone thus far.

I created the below slideshow in Apple's iPhoto 11. It really is a test run to see how it turns out. If I like it, I will make some more shows chronicling some other events in my life. How you enjoy!

Capt Chris

American Exceptionalism and the Bush Doctrine

San Rafael, California

Below is my last paper I will turn in this semester. Yup, my first semester is closing out. I generally avoid politics or any other type of controversial topic on the blog. Chances are high of isolating about half the blog readers in a flash. This paper is on a controversial topic, but one that I'm surprised that more people are not conversant in. So, the hell with it! I post it anyway.

Can't Claim Photo Credit on This One

American Exceptionalism and the Bush Doctrine Personal Reflection Essay Foundations Final

Capt Chris, Student

P.S. Please leave comments! When a comment is left, an email is sent to me, and then I have to authorize the comment. The blog gets attacked by spam regularly.
If you click on title of a blog post, you can see all comments listed under the post. Not sure if the blog post opens in another window though. Thank you!

More on Digital Photography

San Rafael, California

 My interest in photography actually goes way back to when I was very young. My pop bought me a Vivitar 35MM camera as a wee lad.  I remember my photography class in 7th grade at General Wayne Middle School, named after "Mad Anthony Wayne" the famous Revolutionary General. We took pictures and developed them old school style with the photo paper and all the chemicals in the dark room. It was really cool. The self portrait I did still hangs in my parents house in Florida.

I am disappointed with myself that I didn't take photography in terms of my sailing voyage more seriously. I took many pictures no doubt, but I didn't upgrade my camera until half way through the trip. I just could have done a better job that's all.

Trying to navigate the college school system and figuring out which classes satisfies my degree plan is not easy by any stretch. Dominican offers so much flexibility in terms of degree composition it actually creates a risk of taking the wrong course work. Outside of the fact one class costs about $2500 bucks, it is possible to merrily be studying away, only to learn a month or two before graduation, that your short 18 credits because you took the wrong courses. Even worse, it is so confusing, that much of the faculty can't navigate the system easily, and end up providing bad advice to the student. I'm very lucky to have the Chair of the Humanities Department, Prof Stelmach as an advisor. He's been around the horn.

My whole point with this diatribe is that I learned that Introduction to Digital Photography satisfies my creative arts requirement. Jazzed. Way Jazzed. Below is the course description.

Shot with my iPhon4 @night

I've struggled a bit about what to do with this blog. I've considered shutting it down as the original intent was sailing oriented. But I've decided to just keep on rolling as I keep on rolling. It is a wonderful archive. With my digital photography class coming on next semester, all hands can expect a ton of pictures to be posted. So maybe the blog will become more like a PhotoBlog.


Rookie photographers may learn something as I learn and post stuff. Stay tuned! Below are some recent images added to my iPhoto collection.

Canon G11 in Panorama Mode. Shot December 2010

iPhone4 using Hipsmatic App

Canon G11 @ GG Bridge Overlook

iPhone4 using Hipsmatic App. That's Charlie

Circa 1999. California Highway 466 where James Dean died in 1955

November 2010

Capt Chris....ashore smooth

Today's Photo's

Marin County, California

I couldn't resist pulling over after crossing the Golden Gate Bridge today, and taking some pictures. It was so beautiful.

Aristotle's Ethics Applied

Dominican University of California
San Rafael California

Thanksgiving 2010 in San Mateo California

An area of substantial interest for me has been Aristotle. He was a very smart guy. At the beginning of the semester I was stressed about the amount of work on had ahead of me. Go figure. I postured in such a way that I could research a topic (Aristotle's conception of happiness) and use the research in two separate classes. Well it worked. Below is a paper I wrote about Aristotle's ethics and how it applies to my personal life. Surely not a sailing topic, but Aristotle had a great impact on how I viewed cruising on a sailboat. Life will be joyless without friends and/or family regardless of any other circumstance. Maybe this is why I'm more content not sailing and why I enjoyed Thanksgiving so much. Read onward please!

Aristotle's Ethics

Foundation questforinnerselffinal

View more presentations from Christian Allaire.

Mark & Stacie

Capt Chris....in a chilly California

School Presentation

San Rafael, CA

Most people dislike presenting in front of a group of people. This includes me. I get nervous sometimes like most people. It is a function of overcoming an internal fear, so when a presentation goes well, it can give one an enormous buzz. Sometimes the heart gets pounding so fast a person runs the risk of hyperventilating. The only thing I've found that mitigates the symptoms of nervousness and assures a good presentation is preparation. You must understand your material, it helps to enjoy the material as this manifests as enthusiasm, but the best chance of success is to practice your delivery. If possible practice in the forum your going to present, this allows one use the minds eye to psyche yourself up. One last key bit of advice is test out your technology and understand the details of what your using. If using a projector, understand the resolution for any graphics embedded in PowerPoint or have the correct adaptors to jack into the system. Technology glitches add addition stress to a situation one is already nervous about. This prevents screaming "Tech Support!!!!!!!!!" just like in the move Vanilla Sky. Click on the link, its actually pretty funny when thinking about your presentation going wrong.

I presented the below PowerPoint last week about Aristotle's Ethics and his concept of eudaimonia. I'm quickly learning that college professors force students to narrow arguments and research. Some topics are so complex, it is really difficult to do justice to the topic. My charge was to deliver my presentation in 10 minutes. I went to 13 minutes. The first slide is the Film Clip I posted in this blog. I couldn't get it to stick in the below PowerPoint. To watch the clip, click here. I think my presentation went very well and I think my fellow students enjoyed learning about me and Aristotle.

Foundation Quest for Inner Self Final

Art Project Update

San Rafael, CA

I was required to send four digital photo's to my art professor. The task parameters were a portrait, not showing the subjects face, that should tell a story of the subject. So I enlisted my yoga instructor and she graciously let me photograph her. So I snapped a ton of really great pictures of her, with all the "shadows" and "values" and what not. They really turned out great. As an after thought, I enlisted another student to snap some pictures of both Wendy and I. I submitted the pictures and the professor, much to my shock choose the bottom picture. I thought first sure the others were of much better quality. Well, what do I know, apparently the shot of Wendy and I in handstands happen to fit the process much better than the other pictures I submitted.

Here is how I "made" the bottom prints. The professor takes the digital picture and transfers an 8x10 onto an actual old school piece of film. I then transferred the image from the film onto a piece of cooper that has film emulsions on it via this gizmo that beams high intensity blue light onto the cooper. Then I gingerly did a bunch of rubbing and drying of the cooper and coxed out the image. Next step was to roll ink onto the cooper, then again gingerly rub off excess ink to bring out the image. Lastly the inked piece of cooper is placed face down on a thick piece rice paper, then rolled through this gizmo in the shop, basically two metal rollers. Waaalaaa! Now you have the inked image on the rice paper. Very cool! I'm getting my art on. The one below left I did in black ink and the second I did in purple ink. We will do a total of eight prints, so I will now will get as creative as possible and mix up some colors. Pretty cool stuff. I've never been much of an artist. I've always thought it is an innate talent, but like everything else in this world with some instruction and lots of practice one can become good.




















Below is a picture I took of Mount Tamalpais looking northwest into Mill Valley, California. There are a few things I dislike about California. The politics and the taxation of this state is over the top in my view. However, the sheer beauty of the Golden State helps me to blunt my irritation when it arises. I am a real creature of routine and stick with said routine until the routine becomes way to routine. Then I shake things up, establish a new routine and ride that wave until the cycle needs repeating. Routine for me is good. In fact, while writing a paper recently about my life I flushed out this pearl of wisdom regarding my sailing voyage. I figured out that the military life provided such sound structure and routine (which became overbearing and extreme for me) that when I went sailing the loss of routine and structure was unsettling leading to unhappiness. In other words, as Latitude38 pointed out, total freedom for me was disorienting. I'm no longer disoriented.

I took the picture below because the Mount Tam dominates the San Francisco Bay Area landscape for a great distance. In fact some of the best views of Mt Tam can be seen from east bay over at UC Berkeley. I see it just about all day, and my eye is constantly drawn to it, kind of like how the Pitons of St. Lucia dominate. I also took it because I journey to Mill Valley just about everyday to take my yoga class at Red Dragon Yoga. This is part and parcel to my routine that provides the stability I seem to require at this juncture of my life.

Remember I'm a philosophy student now, thus I have deep thoughts routinely.

Capt Chris

PS: Please send me a message or leave a comment. Love to hear from old and new hands!

Dominican Spring Course Work Schedule

Guzman Hall

 I successfully registered for next semesters classes. This semester has been heavy in the writing department. Next semester will be heavy duty in the reading department. Below is my schedule cut and pasted write out of the Dominican computer system.

A few exciting things. First off, my Philosophy of Nature class is being taught by a visiting Fulbright Scholar. This is a big deal, and I'm really jazzed and a bit nervous. Then I'm taking the Great BooksHarlan Stelmach. Again, I'm jazzed by this course, but the amount of reading will be significant. Click on the above link to learn about the Great Books movement. I've been able to finagle myself into an Introduction to Digital Photography course. This class meets twice a week for six hours per week. Thus, I will get a through education in photography. So the kids pretty excited about next semester!
Humanities Seminar taught by my academic advisor

 

Student Schedule 

Traditional 2011/Spring/A
	Registered Courses
	ART 2117/Art Studio/1 - Beginning Digital Photography	Duration 1/19/2011 - 5/11/2011
	Credits 3.00   Type Letter	CEUs 0.00
	Schedule MW 9:25 AM - 12:05 PM;  Dominican University, Library, Room 211
	Instructors Mr. Rod Laursen
	HUM 4930/Lecture/1 - Humanities Seminar	Duration 1/24/2011 - 5/9/2011
	Credits 3.00   Type Letter	CEUs 0.00
	Schedule M 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM;  Dominican University, , Room
	Instructors Dr. Harlan Stelmach
	PHIL 3104/Lecture/1 - PW: Philosophy of Human Nature	Duration 1/19/2011 - 5/11/2011
	Credits 3.00   Type Letter	CEUs 0.00
	Schedule W 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM;  Dominican University, , Room
	Instructors Dr. Alma S. Espartinez Ph.D.
	World Religions	Duration 1/20/2011 - 5/5/2011
	Credits 3.00   Type Letter	CEUs 0.00
	Schedule R 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM;  Dominican University, , Room
	Instructors Ms. Kerri A. Kor

---

Digital Photos For Art Class

San Rafael California

 One of my classes this semester is a printmaking class. I've never really been into art, but think the more training you receive the more one appreciates art. In other words, it really doesn't come naturally. I've had to exert a lot of effort in drawing and then printing my assignments. This week our charge is to submit four digital pictures of a portrait situation that tells a story about the subject. We're then going to imprint the picture onto a cooper plate, and then do some kind of a fancy are thing. Things are a little unclear at this point.

 As some may know yoga as become a large part of my life. I'm going to class about six days a week now. To say that I feel healthy is an understate. I thought maybe some yoga shots would be cool for my art project, and thus I asked one of my yoga instructors if she'd let me snap some pictures. They turned out really really awesome. She rather remain anonymous and so I won't show any of her face. Check em out!

 

Movie Trailer For School

San Rafael California

I have to give a presentation this week in my Foundations of Adult Learning class, which is a study of American culture. My topic is Aristotle's ethics applied to my sailing voyage not completed. So at the end of my Power Point I'm going to show this little clip I put together. None of my fellow students have a clue about my sailing life.



Capt Chris

Tropical Storm Tomas...Approaching the Caribbean

San Rafael California

For long time blog followers, my sometimes irrational obsession with weather is well established. Don't think for a second, now that I've turned in my Sou'wester and trusty compass, for tweed jackets and Guzman Lecture Hall, that I don't get up in the morning and do a quick round of weather analysis. Old habits ya know. A couple of days ago a "yellow blob of doom" otherwise known as an area of disturbed weather had formed near the equator in the Atlantic way east of Trinidad. Much to my surprise during this mornings round up, the yellow had turned to a "red blob from hell" otherwise known as a tropical depression forming. Blam! Tropical Storm Tomas formed very rapidly and is a huge storm. Never has a tropical low formed this far south or east this late in the h-season. Tropical storm warnings are now up for Trinidad, Grenada and all of the Windward Islands. The center should track over St Vincent and the Grenadines. I took the picture below in Salt Whistle Bay, on the island of Myreau, in the Grenadines when I visited aboard Christa. Glad I'm not there now! They should see close to hurricane force conditions. Generally sailors this far south feel comfortable as almost all storms track much further north. I'm sure people are concerned.


I pulled this really excellent youtube forecast clip for all the other weather obsessed.


 

From Christa Mast Top. Salt Whistle Bay Myreau St Vincent and the Grenadines May 2009

I worry for my second family aboard Wandering Dolphin and Kristopher is in Wyoming attending his fathers funeral, while the rest of the gang, minus Jimmy is in St Thomas. Also, Tom and Amy and Sadie Sea are in St. John. So Tomas is forecast to spin up into a major hurricane by middle of next week when the forecast track becomes uncertain. 


Capt Chris
P.S. Two posts in one day. Who would of thunk it?

Racial Identity in America

San Rafael Califoria

 I dashed off another difficult research paper for school. Racial identity is controversial. My parameters for the paper was 3 to 5 pages long, but I slipped a few lines into page 6. The paper was a serious challenge, in that most writing I've been doing has been closer to 20 pages in length. Plenty of room to develop an idea and support said idea by research with 20 pages. In the case of my  racial identity paper,  I had to leave out a substantial amount of blathering. 

I'm out of the sailing world now and in the Humanities and Cultural Studies world, so this is why I would post this on my blog. What can I do?

Racial identity is a very emotional topic, so leave comments if you like!

Capt Chris


Racial Identity in America

Randy Travis in the Spurr of the Moment

San Rafael California
Burr, hit 37 degree's last night

I was hanging out with Lena, a fellow art student, at the print shop on campus the other day. She says, "I want to see Randy Travis and I think he's playing soon." She launched Firefox and wouldn't you know it, he was playing in three hours. She surf's on over to Craigslist and some lady won tickets, but couldn't make the show. She was giving them away. Lena sends an email with phone number, contact is made, and in a flash we now have phat tickets for that evenings show. After a spasm of joy, we lit out for Napa! We had a great dinner, enjoyed the show and pretty much had a great day. These are important little breaks in life.

Lena & I at the Uptown Theater Napa CA

I apologize for the terrible picture quality. Taken on my iPhone4 in a rush by cowboy folks not so adept at technology. It's cool though!

Capt Chris

Spring 2011 Course Work

San Rafael California
Status? Full time Humanities and Cultural Studies student
Major? Philosophy
Why? The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living, and because I'm deep.
Where? Dominican University of California

Here are the courses I'm scheduled to take this coming spring. The current semester has been all about writing. The spring semester seems to be all about reading. Lots and lots of reading.

PHIL 1104 - Philosophy of Human Nature
Inquiry into the enduring questions of human nature including the meaning and purpose of human life, the questions of its spiritual origin and destiny, its capacities for good and evil, the scope and limits of its freedom, the nature of knowing, and the question of immortality, drawing upon a range of Western thought. Particular attention is given to the tension between classical religious and philosophical views and those stemming from modern human sciences such as psychology, sociology, and sociobiology.

This course is being taught by a PHD Fulbright Scholar 

RLGN 1076 - Western Religions
An exploration of one or more of the major religious traditions of the Western world–Judaism, Christianity, and Islam–in their historical and cultural contexts, examining how each conceives the nature of reality, the goals of human life, and the way to those goals. 



HIST 3306 - Ancient Sumer/Egypt
Explores the origins, history, and legacy of ancient Summer and Egypt upon the Western experience. Special attention will be placed on geography and river systems (Tigris-Euphrates, Nile) of the Fertile Crescent as well as how architecture, art, literature, and politics reflected a deep fascination with life's mysteries including man's perennial quest for meaning as exemplified by the epic of Gilgamesh and immortality as exemplified by the pyramids and Egypt's cult of the dead. Field trips will be an integral part of the class.  

Humanities Seminars: The Great Books Course

A university or college Great Books Program is a program inspired by the Great Books movement begun in the United States in the 1920s. The aim of such programs is a return to the Western Liberal Arts tradition in education, as a corrective to the extreme disciplinary specialisation common within the academy. The essential component of such programs is a high degree of engagement with whole primary texts, called the Great Books. The curricula of Great Books programs often follow a canon of texts considered more or less essential to a student's education, such as Plato's Republic, or Dante's Divine Comedy. Such programs often focus exclusively on Western culture. Their employment of primary texts dictates an interdisciplinary approach, as most of the Great Books do not fall neatly under the prerogative of a single contemporary academic discipline. Great Books programs often include designated discussion groups as well as lectures, and have small class sizes. In general students in such programs receive an abnormally high degree of attention from their professors, as part of the overall aim of fostering a community of learning. 

This course is being taught by Professor Harlan Stelmach, my academic advisor and all around scholar. His academic street cred is pretty substantial.

That is the plan for next semester. In my next blog installment, I plan on writing some thought about what is has been like to enter college as an adult. Obviously, the experience is much different than entering in one's teens.

Also, I've agreed to mentor a 21 year old Dominican undergrad who hails from Oakland California. He's been struggling with school and life. I met with him the other day and hope I can be of benefit to him.

Capt Chris