Favorite Things

I watch the Oprah show. More accurately, I listen to the Oprah Show. She is on at 10 pm each weeknight and Michelle tunes in on occasion. I'm usually in heated  discussions with the sandman by this time, but I can hear her through the fog. Last night, her show was allegedly "special" from what I am reading this morning in the news.

I recall from last night's replay, that Oprah was indeed excited, judging by her tone of voice and volume. Typically, her voice is an even-toned and sing-song, a pleasant sound that cuts my sleep negotiations down to mere seconds. But last night was different.

Last night, as it turns out, was the famous Oprah’s Favorite Things show. In the segment, which is typically aired during the holiday season, Winfrey shares products with her audience that she feels are noteworthy or that would make a great gift. In addition, the audience members present during the taping of the episode receive items from that year’s list for free.

It is accompanied by screaming, laughing, and crying audience members

And Oprah's voice was different. Her usual mellowness was replaced by a three and sometimes four-toned yell with a little voice-warbling at the end. I'm sure there is a speech or musical term for what she does. Someone will correct me. I was unaware that she had a propensity for this type of talk until I found this clip.

Obviously, it was difficult to sleep with all that yelling and screaming going on and it got me thinking about two things. First, we should give some thought to announcing events, news, and such at Parkland College just like Oprah did.

"Single sign on is HERRRREEEE!"

"The new carpet in INNNNNNN!"

"We've doubled our Bandwiiiiiiiddddthhhh!"

"The TAX LEVY is lower!"

Go back and read those again, but this time like Oprah does. And then, picture the faculty and staff jumping up and down, screaming and laughing, and slapping each other on the backs. High-Fives and pandemonium...

Ok, moving on.

My second thought was that this is a great idea, this Favorite Things episode. It's so good, I'm going to steal it and use it for my own purposes. I hope to avoid jail time by giving proper credit to the originator. Done. Without further complication and in no particular order, I give you my version of Favorite Things for 2010:

The Flattop Grill -  Obvious reasons. The horseradish sauce is amazing. Plus, we have one in town.

Microsoft Kinect - I don't have one yet, but come on...it has to be cool, right?

Single Sign On - Faculty, if you click the "Angel Login" link on the Applications tab in the Portal, you'll automatically be logged into Angel!  You won't have to type your username and password into Angel separately – Single Sign On! Hooray. Well done, Patrick!

Global Positioning Satellite - Not only in the car, but on a phone!

Outstanding Staff Awards - Award winners will each receive College-wide recognition and $750/$250 for professional development costs such as tuition and fees; textbooks; conference and workshop registration; travel; professional periodicals and texts; membership
dues in professional organizations; work related software and hardware. The two Outstanding Staff Award categories are the Parkland GOLD Award for Parkland staff of 6 years or more and the Parkland GREEN Award for staff of 5 years or less.

The iPad - One of the coolest inventions yet. It has limitations to be sure, but on the whole, well done. Our Board of Trustees use iPads in place of paper materials.

Words with Friends - If you have the iPad or the iPhone, this is one of the best applications.
It's free, it's Scrabble, and you can play against friends or random strangers.

Doubling our bandwidth -  At a Faculty Forum, faculty expressed how slow our Internet was on campus and how it impacts classroom instruction and other academic tasks. The backstory:  ICN is our internet service provider. They allot bandwidth to institutions based upon enrollment. Since we host the Region VII office, we are given a bit more. Those two total 25M of bandwidth. A year or two ago, we purchased an additional 6M chunk to alleviate bandwidth issues which helped for a while.

We also implemented a bandwidth manager to put limits on streaming video applications such as Youtube, while providing the instructors' workstations (in the classrooms) with priority
over everyone else. All of these steps were effective for a while, but bandwidth demand continues to escalate.  Several months ago, ICN raised our bandwidth cap to 45M for a two-week period. As of 11/13/2010, we have increased our connection to 100M.

The William M. Staerkel Planetarium at Parkland College -  They have added a new holiday program to its show lineup, called "Season of Light." The show opens at 8 p.m. on Friday, November 26 and will run Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m. through December 18. 

"Season of Light" traces the history and development of many of the world's most endearing holiday customs, all of which involve lighting up the winter season--from the burning Yule log, sparkling Christmas tree lights, and candles in windows, to the lighting of luminarias in the American Southwest and the traditional ritual of the Hanukkah menorah. The show is narrated by Noah Adams of National Public Radio.

Tickets are $5 for adults and $4 for students, seniors, and children under 12 with all tickets being sold at the door. Friends of the Staerkel Planetarium are admitted free of charge. For more information on Staerkel Planetarium programs, call the show hotline at 217/351-2446 or visit the link.

The Engadget website - It satisfies my need for up-to-date- information on gadgets,
computers, and technology in general. It's on my daily read list.

SPARK - SPARK is Parkland College's brand new open-access digital repository. It is the home of the rich body of scholarly and creative work of Parkland College students, faculty, administration, and staff. SPARK promotes and showcases these works, and facilitates their global discovery. Go Sherry!

Cobra Volleyball - National Tournament-quality teams nearly every year and Coach Hastings was named the Region 24 Coach of the Year!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and be safe.




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