Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. I Thess 5:21

Monday begins a new school year. For those of us in academia, our calendars run September to May rather than January through December. June and July don’t really exist, and August is a blur because we are so busy preparing for the new term. I love the first day of school. The weather is starting to turn, I get to meet a bunch of new students who are ready to begin their 4-year journey through college, and I get to try out a few of the hairbrain ideas I’ve come up with during the summer. My goal for this year is to really, honestly, try to enjoy my job as much as I can. Not that I haven’t in years past, but this year I don’t have the spectre of Tenure hanging over me. My tenure application is done and is starting to work its way through the official channels. There is nothing more to add. I’ve made my case and I’m at total peace with it. Not to sound too cocky, but I don’t really expect anything except a positive outcome. Now receving tenure doesn’t mean that I stop trying to do better. Quite the contrary. It just means that I can do my job without having to justify what I’m doing. I don’t need to keep track of everything that I do, and I don’t need to do more stuff just to make my tenure binder thicker. This year I’m just going to focus on my students. I’m going to put every ounce of effort into reaching as many as I can. I want my senior research students to have a great experience. I want my freshmen to see how exciting (yes exciting) chemistry is. I want my organic lab students to really do well and not think organic chemistry is a miserable experience like I did. Yes, this is going to be a great year. I am still praying that “Joe” can graduate this year too. So put on your party hat, grab some noisemakers, get the confetti ready, and be ready to kiss the one you love come midnight. Happy New Year!!!

Just finished “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell. It’s the third book I’ve read by him and I’m adding his newest book “What the Dog Saw” to my to-read list. In fact, Malcolm Gladwell is now in that category of authors where it doesn’t matter what the book is about, what the reviews are, I don’t need to browse a few pages, I just add any new book he writes to the to-read list. Period. I don’t care if it’s a yiddish cookbook; if Malcolm writes it, I will read it.

Wow, two posts in the span of 10 minutes! While I’m thinking about it, I just wanted to give an update on the “YEAR OF THE READING LIST” project I’ve been doing. Yes, it is still going on. I had to take a little break and read a bit of nonfiction. My list of books I wanted to read was getting out of control so I wanted to knock a few off. Before any of you judge me or call me a quitter, just keep in mind that I got pretty far into “Anna Karenina” before I couldn’t take it anymore; that book would cause most people to swear off reading for a bit. I will tackle a few of the shorter, less-Russian volumes next. I’m thinking about some Hemmingway.

OK, here it is. My long awaited return to the blog.I’ve finished my tenure and promotion binder, migrated from my old work PC to the new Mac, and got chemicals ordered for student research projects. Next week we will hopefully be able to move some stuff into the new science building. All that is left is to get things ready for classes. I say that like it’s just a couple of things. In essence, it really is. I’m not making any wholesale changes to the courses I’m teaching, but I always have grand ideas bouncing around in my head. I’ll see about getting to those as the semester goes on. That’s enough of a post for now. Back to work. Thanks for reading. Hopefully the next post won’t be months away.

I know, it’s been a while since I’ve posted, but here it goes. I’ve come to regard the middle of April as a unique time in the academic year. The craziness of March which involves preparing for the national American Chemical Society conference, reading drafts of proposals and senior research theses, advising students for fall registration, and oh yeah, teaching classes too, slowly moves toward a two week lull. It’s nice not to have to prepare for speaking engagements, crumby first drafts of papers from students are giving way to more polished final drafts, my lesson plans for the last few weeks are done, and the scrambling of finals week and grade submissions is still a couple of weeks off. Yes, this is the time to start reflecting on what a great semester it has been, how exciting it will be to see the seniors walk across the stage, and how I plan on tackling a myriad of projects over the summer. Only this year I am also feeling a bit of sadness too. There is one particular student of mine, I’ll call him Joe, that I’ve taught in a number of courses over the past four years. I’ve also served as his academic advisor. In all likelihood, Joe will not be graduating with a degree in chemistry. He’s missed a number of key deadlines in completing his research, I’m not sure if a course he’s taking at another school is going well, and a take home exam in my course will probably not be turned in tomorrow, and he’ll fail my course. That will be the last shoe to drop, and Joe will not meet the requirements for graduation.  Of all the students I’ve taught whether it be at Saint Vincent or at Central Michigan, I can think of no other student whom I’ve invested more prayers and tears for. Without giving the entire back-story, Joe suffers from severe medical depression. It’s made his personal and academic life incredibly difficult. Joe’s had many ups and downs this past year, but I really thought he was going to be able to limp over the finish line. I’ve prayed and prayed, and imagined how great it would be to see him cross that stage and receive his diploma. Sadly, I don’t think that is going to happen. I haven’t seen or heard from Joe in over a week. I’ve never felt such an emotional attachment to one of my students before. I was his chief cheerleader and advocate in the department, but reality is settling in. I have the custom of writing the names of the graduating seniors in the front of my Bible. I try to go through that growing list at least every other week and pray for each student by name. Sadly, Joe’s name won’t be on that list. My department chair, who’s been an incredible mentor to me, has reminded me of how even though we’re going to see one senior not make it, we have 14 others who have done a phenomenal job this year. Indeed they have. As I’ve reflected and counted the blessings of this past year, God has been good. These students excelled academically, completed really good senior projects, and most will be going on to top notch graduate and professional schools or careers in the chemical industry. However, my thoughts and prayers are with Joe and I ask that those of you reading this will keep him in yours. I’ll close by saying that Joe’s name does appear in my Bible, perhaps on an even more important page. I had the privilege and honor of leading him to the Lord about a year ago, and so far, his name is the only one on that page. I pray that more will be added as time goes on. I hope that Joe can take the next step and develop his walk with the Lord, because it’s going to take His power to help Joe break that stronghold in his life. I pray that he finds a church and a good preacher to mentor him. I had offered to disciple Joe, but he declined, saying that he wanted to focus on finishing his schooling first. I didn’t push the issue, but wish I had done more. I wish they prepared you for this stuff in professor school. Thanks for reading.

I did not become a reader until half-way through graduate school. A couple of reasons why were:

1. my addiction to television (which I’ve since overcome)
2. my lack of time (I had lots of homework until I finished grad-school coursework)
3. I hated reading because my teachers assigned crummy books that THEY thought I should read. They didn’t bother consulting me on the matter.

Now that none of these conditions apply, I thoroughly love to read. I choose what I want to read. However, there are a number of titles that I never read that I probably should read in order to be considered a learned individual. Therefore, 201o will be the year of the SUMMER READING LIST. I’ve consulted a number of different lists of great books, thought about titles that often come up in “JEOPARDY” questions, asked my wife, and consulted some of my students to compile the following list of 30 titles. The only titles that I eliminated from consideration were:

• titles that were incredibly long (I’ve budgeted 2 weeks per book). I’m sure that “Crime & Punishment” and “War & Peace” are great books, just not for this exercise
• books I’ve read already
• books where I saw the movie (regardless of how true to the book the movie is)
• books by chicks (sorry, Jane Austin, the Brontes, and especially Toni Morrison, were what caused my dislike of reading) The exception is “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, but hey it’s a monster book. If it makes any of you feminists feel any better, I do plan on reading “Pride & Prejudice & Zombies” and “Sense & Sensibility and Sea Monsters.”

Without further delay, here is the list:

1. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain
2. “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut
3. “Animal Farm” by George Orwell
4. “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy
5. “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville
6. “Around the World in 80 Days” by Jules Verne
7. “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway
8. “The Invisible Man” by H.G. Wells
9. 2 Shakespeare plays I haven’t read-TBD
10. “The Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan
11. “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson
12. “Mere Christianity” by C. S. Lewis
13. “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkein
14. “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley
15. “The Hound of the Baskervilles” by Arthur Conan Doyle
16. “The Agony and the Ecstasy” by Irving Stone (this is for you father-in-law)
17. “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley
18. “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck
19. “Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger
20. “The Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
21. “The Prince” by Niccolo Machiavelli
22. “Swiss Family Robinson” by Johann Wyss
23. “Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift
24. “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” by Victor Hugo
25. “Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe
26. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams
27. “Ulysses” by James Joyce
28. “Catch-22″ by Joseph Heller
29. “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie
30. “A Confederacy of Dunces” by John Toole

Well, today was an exciting day. It all started around 1:30 am on Sunday morning. Dianne began having some really strong contractions. Based on her past history of quick labors, we called our friend to come over and stay with the kids in the house while we went to the hospital. At the hospital, the contractions remained strong, but started to get farther apart. Even after walking laps around the labor & delivery floor, the contractions remained sporadic, and they sent us home around 7:00 am. Our friend went home, and we fed the kids breakfast. Dianne’s contractions continued throughout the morning and we made plans to drop our kids off at church to stay with friends for the day. I met a friend halfway to church and got back home as soon as I could. Good thing. Dianne was definitely in full-on labor. The contractions were very strong, but still around 9 minutes apart. Most hospitals  tell you not to come in until they are 5 minutes apart for a full hour, so we waited. They got to about 6 minutes, and I could see from Dianne’s face that we needed to go. There was no 5 minutes apart. Everything turned into one long continuous contraction. At this point, the car is running, the stuff is in there, and I am wondering if I am going to get Dianne to the car. She had a sensation like her water broke, and things start to move very quickly. While Dianne is getting into the car, I dial the hospital and tell them we are coming quickly, be ready. About a mile down the road, about 4 minutes from the hospital, Dianne informs me that the baby is coming. I suggest to her kindly that it would be a good idea for her to wait a few more minutes, but her water breaks en route. I get on the phone to 911 while in traffic at a red light. The operator asks if I need an ambulance, and after consulting the birth committee, I decide to pull over into the parking lot of the First National Bank. After pulling into a parking spot, I rush over to Dianne’s side of the car, and the baby was there. Everyone asked if I delivered the baby, but I really didn’t do anything.  I was just the only guy who was there to sign for the package. The ambulance arrived on the scene in about 2 minutes, and I let the professionals take over. Everyone got to the hospital in great shape. Mommy and baby are doing great. She weighed in at 7 lbs 8 oz.

I just finished reading “John Quincy Adams” by Lynn Hudson Parsons. Great biography. It was nice that it was only about 300 pages, unlike the other biographies that I end up reading that have more like 600. The author does a great job of encapsulating our 6th president’s life without using “historian speak” or editoriallizing too much. I believe only David McCullough could write a better bio. I can sum JQA up by saying he was a very learned man, someone with a servant’s heart, a patriot and statesman like his father, but a lousy president and politician. I find it interesting that the author devotes very little time to his actual presidency other than to show how his distaste and therefore lack of “electioneering” pretty much made him easy pickings for his opponents. I can’t say I agree completely with all of his political philosophies, but the man had principles and a devotion to the Union. The fact that he was called into service as a member of the House of Representatives after he was president until the day he died (he actually died in the House) shows his statesmanship. His work as an opponent of the spread of slavery will be his legacy, and though historians are not kind to his years in the White House, no historian can doubt his integrity and love for his country. Overall, this bio gets 4 stars. Thanks for reading.

Shear Lake at Camp Barakel

This past weekend my wife was gracious enough to send me to a much needed men’s retreat at Camp Barakel. I dropped the family off in Ohio with grandparents and I headed on up to northern Michigan. The speaker for the weekend was Tom Harmon who is the father of our best friends in Michigan. He is truly a Godly speaker. I’ve listened to him preach in person a few times, and I’ve downloaded many of his Barakel messages. Perhaps the most needed part of the entire weekend was being away from all media: no wifi, no cell phone (other than to talk to my wife a couple of times), no TV, no football, no newspapers, no Facebook, no Twitter, nothing. It was great being with 300 other Christian men in the midst of the woods, with a beautiful lake right outside my cabin window. The worship services were amazing! Imagine all these big, burly men, singing out wonderful choruses, and genuinely pouring their hearts out to the Lord in song. There were no ties, there were no suits; think lots of flannel and cammo. The messages were just what we needed. Tom Harmon lays it out very plain and simple and the Holy Spirit makes sure each man hears what he needs to hear. There was much time for quiet reflection too. I thanked the Lord for my wife, my children, and the students he has given me charge over. Many tears were shed. It had been 4 or 5 years since my last visit, but I hope to make this a more regular trip. Barakel in hebrew means “where God has blessed.” God surely has blessed Camp Barakel, and I received many blessings by being there.

Yesterday, the Little Man and I had our traditional meal at the Greek Food Festival. I’ve been every year since I’ve been in PA, and various members of the family have accompanied me. However, since it’s usually a very crowded affair, and eating out with all the children usually turns into a fiasco, it’s become a boys night out. We’ve been three years in a row, and each year it gets more special. Traditions need not be elaborate, just something simple you can share with your family.

The Little Man enjoying his baklava sundae