Christmas and the end of the year is upon us once again.   Where does the time go?     

 2009 has been very good to us.    Rowan has continued to grow up strong and smart, Jessica is “with child” again, and I am just thankful for my family and the blessings God has given us this year.    While indeed we are in the cold and dark months of the year, I cannot help but feel renewed and ready to tackle the challenges 2010.   

We’ve been lucky to have Jessica’s sister Amanda in town since May.   She’s had quite the adventure in Evansville, and I hope when she leaves for grad school she remembers her year in Evansville fondly.    She’s been great to have around, and am glad she’s gotten to spend lots of time with Rowan.

 Nanny and Pawpaw made numerous trips to Evansville to visit, and we are glad they are willing to visit as often as they do.   We enjoyed some trips to Rochester as well, and Rowan got to take a few more boat rides.    We are excited to see what the future holds for them as they ponder a move to southern Indiana.    

We’ve also made numerous trips to Tell City to visit my family.   Rowan loves all of his cousins – Tristan, Kaden, Riley, and Ethan – and can’t wait to see them over the holidays.   He said he might share some of his new toys with them….  MIGHT!

Work this year has been crazy to say the least.   While busy and sometimes overwelmed, I’ve gotten into the grove here at the college and feel like I’ve found a home.   USI is my alma mater (and Jessica’s too) and I have a lot of love for what I do at this institution and the students I serve.   It had been a long time since I’ve felt like I am doing meaningful work, and it makes it a joy to come to work every day.

I  took the first steps towards earning my graduate degree, a Master of Public Administration, this year.   I have to admit that the subject matter is boring beyond belief and the work painful at times.    Graduate level work is certainly more challenging than undergraduate, and I was a bit shocked how busy one class kept me for the past 15 weeks.  I have another class in the spring, and hope it will be more interesting.  

We are also very excited for the new additions of our family and friends.    Jessica’s cousin Jyl and her husband Ryan welcomed their second child, Logan.   Our friends Mike and Salina had their first child, Claire, just this last week.   We just recently found out our friends Elizabeth and Jon are expecting in 2010 as well!   It is always fun to see our friends and loved ones expanding their families and experiencing the joys of parenthood.    

2009 has been a year of learning for us, as Rowan has transistioned from an infant to a full blown walking and talking toddler.     Jessica and I cuddled up on the couch for a moment after Rowan went to sleep a few nights ago and talked about the past few years.    We’d been looking at some new pics of Claire on Salina’s  Facebook, so we pulled up some old pictures of Rowan at the same age of a few days old.   We were in disbelief how much he has grown!   Of course Rowan was 3 pounds heavier and 2 inches longer than Claire, but he was still a newborn, and very precious and vulnerable to the elements of the world.  it is amazing how quickly he has grown up, and look forward to him amazing us even more in the next year. 

So yes, very much to be thankful for this Christmas.   We wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and we pray that everyone is safe, and most importantly, healthy,  in the new year.   We look forward to another crazy year, and hope you continue to follow us.

When I was backing up all my photos I realized I never posted pictures from the last women’s Basketball game I covered. On Saturday, December 12th Rowan Women’s basketball beat Arcadia 68-63. The following week Rowan improved its record to 7-3 by beating Widener for its last game before the winter break.

I had some John Lewis vouchers as a wedding present and my lovely parents-in-law gave me vouchers for a birthday present too. I cannot stress enough how much immense enjoyment I had going around the yarn department of John Lewis in Reading humming quietly and plucking a few balls of this, a few balls of that…

Quite a lot of yarn

I have four balls of Rowan Purelife Organic cotton, six balls of Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino in gender-neutral colours, four balls of Regia sockyarn and six balls of Patons Fairytale 3ply (the 100% wool one). At the moment I don’t have any real idea of what I’m going to do with it, I’m just gloating over my Pile o’ Yarn. Happy days.

Pattern: Cheadle by Marie Wallin, from Rowan 46.

Yarn: 8 skeins of Rowan Cocoon in Tundra.

Needles: U.S. 10 and 10-1/2.

I love this sweater even though I'm making a weird face. It's from the hard sun of Texas autumn.

My love affair with this sweater began simply enough, when I saw it in an advertisement for the Fall 2009 Rowan magazine. Over the days that followed, its image began to consume me, and I started looking at the ad a couple times a day. My yarn store didn’t have the magazine in stock but offered to order it; a week went by and then I ended up ordering it online with my yarn for the project because I figured that way I’d get everything a little sooner. That was rather shameful but I think the yarn store women could at least understand the grade of obsession I was working from (and I assume they’d ordered several to sell). So there was a great ecstasy to finally casting on for this project, but that was back in September when I had three self-imposed writing deadlines and could only work on it for an hour a day. Again: like love. In October I decided I wanted to finish it in time to wear my sweater to Argentina, so spent several days knitting up the big 22-cm. cowl neck, and then I ran out of yarn since I’d made the bottom ribbing longer than in the pattern. Bought more yarn from someone on Ravelry. Went to Argentina and most often was thankful I hadn’t finished my gigantic bulky sweater since the weather was so warm and my backpack was full. I thought of it waiting at home in my closet. Soon after returning home, I finished it.

I spend a lot of time looking at fashion magazines and am coming from that when I say I love this sweater’s shape and find it absolutely modern. I pretty much stuck to the pattern besides lengthening the sweater to 20.5 cm. This is my first Rowan magazine though I remember them from working with Renee in San Francisco, who used to knit from them all the time. Renee learned how to knit in school when she was seven; she’s a tall Irish woman with white hair who wears layers of diaphanous clothes and bright lipstick and once left to go trekking in Nepal for a couple weeks (she was in her late fifties or early sixties).  She was my first (and only) knitting mentor and would come to work with thisgs like a whole side of a sweater coat she’d knitted up the past night. But the thing about Rowan magazines is that they take beautiful photos that are not particularly helpful in seeing how the garments are finished. Crucial details are concealed in artsy shadows. The photo below is what sparked my obsession with this sweater, but gives no indication of how the big plait in the center is finished–if you braid it the way it’s braided here, the weight of the sweater causes the three strips to gap and hang open in some places. I decided to solve this by sewing a couple stitches where necessary to close the gaps instead of seaming them all the way so that I could retain as much texture in that area as I could. I also lightly blocked the strips before plaiting them. I left the sleeves a little more open because I like how that looks in the photo. Were I to make this over again, I’d lengthen the bottom even more (I had half or a third of my eighth skein left) and would braid the plait one or two more times to make it hold together more tightly and thus have less need to sew the gaps.   

I write some fiction involving textiles and something I keep coming back to is an idea of fusing fibers with skin and people with animals. In industrial textile production you’re a part of the machine you’re operating. Knitting and weaving by hand is a deeply physical process where your materials are right against your skin and your tools are an extension of your body. Sometimes your hands hurt, or your eyes dry out. Your skin might chap where yarn passes over and over. One could say this about any art or craft process but textiles especially resonate with me because I mainly use animal fibers. Working with Cocoon, which is 80% merino wool and 20% kid mohair, I felt this more than ever. Cocoon has this subtle animal smell that I hope never goes away. It’s expensive (I got a bulk discount from Webs online, but still!) but I felt like a little animal with it between my fingers and I can attest that it wears really well since I’ve been wearing this sweater about three times a week–no pilling or spontaneous felting.

I have allowed myself to buy one nice luxurious ball of Rowan Cocoon, thinking that I could really do with a hat – a hat with a huge bobble. I sensed cold winter coming and had to prepare for it!

Classic Elite Yarns Webletter no 71 – Ariosa Pom-Pom hat

Maybe it’s a bit childish, but I love the size of this pom pom – it’s almost as big as her head! Of course I had to have it. I only thought that I would run out of yarn, so decided to make it slightly shorter.

My problem with hats is that they are usually too tight making my hair flatter than a pancake, or they are too long, ending up in my eyes when they cover my ears comfortably. Now this one, let me tell you, is just right. It took only one evening to make, and not before time! On the very next day it got so cold and snowy, I had no choice but to omit blocking and wear it immediately (as if I didn’t have another warm hat, being a knitter! – no actually, I didn’t, how did that happen?).

Come to think of it, the pom pom is a bit small compared to the size of the hat and my head, but I don’t know when I will have the chance to redo it, or whether this amount of yarn will be enough:

I love it though, so soft and warm, the pom pom is not quite as important as trapped body heat right now.

Last Saturday Rowan swam against the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.  Rowan won 172-128 and improved its record to 4-2 for the year. This was my first meet shooting diving and I realized how difficult of a sport it is.

Twitter made its way on to the web just 3 years ago and has exploded to become a world wide success. The question is
what is twitter? and why is it become so popular?

Twitter is simply a micro or “mini” blog that consists text messages or “tweets” of just 140 characters which are posted
on the users profile and accessible to the individuals list of “follwers” or subscribers. The reason for its popularity
is just as simple as it’s premise, users find it easy to adopt, which has helped it amass approximately 5 million users world wide.

Early on the Twitter wave of popularity was championed by a number of celebrities, Ashton Kutcher to name but one,
which made the general public’s interest even more fevered. The consumption would soon reach a astronomical heights and
soon the commercial world acknowledged Twitters impact and its ability to reach customers. So now that Twitter seems
to have taken over, much like the invasion of the body snatchers- but in this case its our time that has been stolen in favour
of a utopian text based society, whats next for the Twitter phenomenon? Developers have been churning out new applications
for Twitter daily with everything from extended tweets to creating your own personalised twitter templates and there seems to be
no end in sight. Jack Dorsey and his team have just launched a new mobile payment company but be assured this is only the begining!

Facebook and Yahoo! announced a new deal today that will give users of both services the ability to share their activities, comments, news and more. The partnership will be available to users in the early part of 2010.Facebook and Yahoo! already have a deal which allows Yahoo! users to share certain items of content on Facebook and Facebook users can view limited information from their page on the Yahoo! portal.
So what will Yahoo and Facebook gain from this new arrangement? Back in March of this year Yahoo took on Facebook’s Connect application in the form of Yahoo Updates, developed in partnership with widget provider JS-Kit, and have endeavored to produce other applications to directly compete with Facebook’s wide array of applications. Yahoo! has been fighting difficult times over the last 18 months with closures of both Yahoo 360 and Yahoo Mash.
As far back as 2006 Yahoo! tried to buy a stake in the social networking market with a bid for Facebook which was rejected by founder Mark Zuckerberg. Now Yahoo! has adopted a strong strategy of partnering with their former competitors by integrating with companies such as Facebook to capture space in the growing social media marketplace.
Early 2010 will see Yahoo users’ able login to Yahoo products such as Flickr, News, and Sports via their Facebook accounts and Yahoo! believe that this will enhance the users’ experience. The Facebook Connect application which allows user to connect to other non-Facebook web sites via a secure Facebook ID and then add those interactions to the rest of your Facebook activities will be integrated into Yahoo! services giving allowing user to feed the information to both Yahoo friends and connections.
Insiders view this new deal as a win/ win situation for both Yahoo and Facebook with Yahoo attracting newer users to their aging portal while also increasing awareness of Yahoo products and Facebook get to increase traffic to the one of the world’s fastest growing communities which includes over 350 million users. The future of this partnership may grow even further but both Yahoo and Facebook are remaining tip lipped in regards to further integration. Jim Stoneham, VP for communities at Yahoo described the agreement as a “very deep long-term partnership.”
We look forward to yelling Yahoo! more often as this interesting partnership continues.

Rowan Meade is a web analyst and writer

Aurelia, Audrey, Beatrix, Cassia, Cordelia, Dulcia, Eulalia, Freya, Holly,  India, Imogen, Isadora, Imala, Inez, Kezia,  Lucretia, Mabel, Novella, Orla, Olive, Olympia, Poppy, Penelope, Polly, Phoebe, Rhea, Saffron, Saskia, Tatiana, Tuscany, Tallulah, Thora, Thea, Vivienne, Vienna, Vera, Willa, Wren, Willona, Zora, Ziva, Azura, Aviva.

Ambrose, Arthur, Barnaby, Baxter, Cole, Dexter, Emmett, Emilian, Felix, Gulliver, Harvey, Ivor, Jasper, Lucian, Lysander, Malachi, Moss, Oakley, Orlando, Perrin, Rowan, Rain, River, Sommett, Tybalt, Troy, Thor, Thorn, Tychius, Vincent, Wilbur.

Rowan heaved a deep sigh. He loved Freja and he wanted to be with her. However, they were in different divisions of the Snow Lions. His division was so far away from hers that they seldom saw each other. Everytime they had to part, he felt like his heart was breaking.

His brows furrowed and he shook his head. It was time – past time, really. He slipped through the crowd in the dining hall and stepped up to his captain. “Captain Hummel?” he said, touching the smaller man on the sleeve.

“Rowan,” Captain Hummel said, his eyes wide. Something about Rowan’s demeanor must have hinted at the seriousness of the matter on his mind. The normally cheerful captain scowled. “What is it?”

Rowan took a steadying breath. “I’m transfering, Captain,” he said. “I’m moving over to the Thistle Division – Captain Dafyth’s Divsion.”

“Freja’s division,” Captain Hummel said, giving Rowan a faint smile. He nodded and patted Rowan on the shoulder. “We’ll miss you, of course, but… I wish you – and Freja – all the best.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Rowan said, sighing softly. The first task was done. It was easier than he’d thought it would be. “The transfer papers…”

“I’ll talk to Bronwyn,” his captain said. “You’ll be back with your mate – for good – by the end of the week, Rowan.” He smiled brightly, as if he knew something Rowan couldn’t imagine. Then he turned away and disappeared into the crowd.

On Saturday, the final of the 2009 Heritage Dairy Stores Classic was played at Rowan. The championship game featured Rowan University and Delaware Valley College. Rowan won the championship 92-80.

Mr. Blackbeard

Originally uploaded by gumg

This is supposed to be Rowan Atkinson as Pirate Blackbeard.

My new challenge for 2010, starting at January 1st, is to draw portraits, with pencil and / or charcoal. I really want to learn to draw faces the way one can recognize who is meant by this drawing

This could be your big chance to see a portrait from yourself or your friends and families for free on flickr.

So, I need faces, and if you would like to be portraited and don´t mind that the drawing will be shown on flickr (even when it´s not very similar to your picture, as I said, I´m still learning), I would be more than happy to receive pictures from you!

The second game of the Heritage Dairy Stores Classic featured host Rowan University against Berkley College. Rowan won the game and will play Delaware Valley College  on Saturday afternoon’s final.

Whups

Onoes! 3 rows from the top and I run out of yarn and have to switch. It’s that Rowan Tapestry again.

Anyway, three more to do… Ughhhh. I’ve been knackered and trying to get things done at the same time, and also I knitted a square for a friend’s blanket, which I’d been putting off.

I’m going to Ikea tomorrow, I will try to knit a hat or two while I travel.

So, here’s what happened in the first session of Into the Mists:

Mikhail moved in, and went to the hospital to see what life would be like their. The Hospital being understaffed, he found out that along with his specialty practice, he’d be playing the role of Regular Doctor as well. this suited him just fine.

The night before, Day and Rowan had moved in, and finding themselves neighbors, went out for a late dinner. They noticed something strange about the fog. No matter where they were, they seemed to be in the center of a crowed. No one ever touched them, or spoke to them, but in the fog they could se figures, and some times distorted faces. They got to Denny’s just as it closed and got their meals to go. The waitress was not happy.

Returning home, Rowan found her food particularly soggy.  She also found a set of keys stabbed into her bathroom wall. Nine old iron keys, covered in crusted over, what she could only imagine was blood.

Anyway, the next morning, Day and Mikhail met, and exchanged hurried hellos. Mikhail went to bed, Day went to go get a job at the bank, in which she was successful. Rowan went to the army base and found out that the shooting range was only available to her on Sundays. She went back home and picked at the walls of her apartment, breaking a hole in one and finding an ornate wooden box with a five number lock on the front. She spent the rest of her day trying to figure out the code, and failed.

Later that night, Day and Rowan went clubbing. Day was trippin’ balls, and rowan wanted nothing to do with anyway, so she went and sulked in a hallway. She found the room in which sex was had and, across the way and downstairs, a locked wooden door. She tried one of the keys, but it did not work.

Day and Rowan went home. Mikail went to work the night shift. AND ALMOST SHIT HIS PANTS. While searching fro fresh linin on the secound floor of the hospital, Mikhail found himself glued to the spot in a hallway only lit by emergency lights. He could see the lights at the end of the hallway working fine though. And he could not move. A figure began to come towards him, and he could see in the lights that it was an old man, supported by only the machines he was plugged into. as the man got closer, he could see that the his mouth had open an obscene amount, and that the man’s face was not one, but many, stiched together. The man let out a scream, and the lights turned on, and Mikhail found himself next to the closet he had been looking for. he continued on his shift as if nothing had happened, but made sure to send orderlies to the 2nd floor, instead of himself.

The next day! Day had her first shift at New Robin, and noticed a strange buzzing sound. After work she hung out with the other tellers at a coffee shop, then began to wander around main street, asking people about the fog.  She bumps into Mikhail as he has his post shift tea/coffee and they continue gallivanting. They question a phycic, who after telling Day she’ll meet great love in her life, pulls a Professor Trelawney and goes all stiff, saying “The Fog, They want to be reborn. They are coming. The Fog.” Day and Mikhail book it.

Meanwhile Rowan takes her box to a locksmith to try and get it open, but even they have trouble. Rowan gives in one last try before breaking the wooden box open, and she manages to unlock it. Inside are a list of nine names, one coinciding with the name of a young girl to go missing recently in the fog. She does some investigating and find out that these names are the names of girls who went missing 15 years ago. She manages to make a list and contact all the people in the phone book with the same last names as the missing girls, and finds that this exact list has been recreated by relatives of the missing girls, each family naming a daughter after a relative who went missing. This alarms Rowan, and she goes to talk to the parents of the missing girl, Rachel O’Dae. On the way, Rowan find out that another girl on the list of missing girls from15 years ago has gone missing: Celie Evans. When Rowan speaks to Mrs O’Dae, she is cooperative. Mr. O’Dae however is not, and leaves Rowan frustraited, so she goes home.

Laura and Amanda move in next to Rowan. Rowan makes small talk with Lauren and manages to find out that Amanda’s last name is Sanders. One of the names on her list.  She informs both of them of this.

And that’s where we left off!

-Michael

Rowan’s student newspaper, The Whit, won the 2009 Online Pacemaker Award in the Four-Year-Non-Daily Newspaper for its website The Whit Online.

The 2009 Associated Collegiate Press Online Pacemaker contest had 45% more entries than the previous year, according to a press release about the contest. The ACP concluded that college publications are “adapting to the steadily evolving world of media.”

Ellyn Angelotti, interactivity editor for the Poynter Insitute, judged the competition; she told ACP the top sites showed excellence  “in integration of multimedia and user-generated content, navigability, coverage, in-depth reporting; custom, clean design; sound news judgment for the homepage.”

It is not surprise The Whit Online won the award; they have all of those areas covered. Just three years ago, The Whit’s online presence was lacking, it didn’t have all of the stories as in the paper, or even use the school colors.

The current layout features blogs, a photo scroll on the homepage that links to news stories, a slide show, featured video, and a widget that aggregates comments posted on various articles.

The Whit now does live blogging during events where a reporter will provide commentary about the Oscar’s, for example, and allow students and visitors to the site to join in on the conversation.

The multimedia brings the site to a new level, not only because it’s current, but because it makes the site more interesting, and eye-catching for students.

Visitors will return to the site because of its attractiveness and interactivity.

Emily Kostic, current editor-in-chief, took on the role of web editor last year, and is responsible for the big changes to the layout and design of the site.

In addition to a redesigned website, The Whit also popped up on Facebook and Twitter.

“We use social media as a means to get people to our website,” said Kostic.

Facebook has allowed The Whit to direct more traffic to the website.

“There are not a lot of Rowan students on Twitter,” said Chris Carmena, current web editor.

Carmena helped get social media off the ground for The Whit, explained Kostic.

While Rowan students may not be interested, because “everyone’s friends are still on Facebook, so they see no added benefit to go to it,” said Kostic, the Whit’s use of twitter keeps them current with both national, and global news organizations.

Current newsstories are posted tweeted, posted on facebook, with all links going to The Whit Online weekly, in addition to any breaking news that comes up.

Just a few weeks ago, The Whit Online “posted a story about the fire alarm in the library that looked more dramatic than it was; four Emergency trucks and four fire trucks for a potato being burned,” said Kostic.  If it had not been for the story most students at Rowan would not have known what happened.

The Whit used their Twitter and Facebook pages to direct students to the site for the full article.

“I feel like its [Facebook] helped our transparency,” said Kostic. “We’re not these random kids hanging out in the corner of the Student Center.”

If students have tips for news stories, they are encourage to contact the The Whit via Facebook and/or Twitter in addition to the site, e-mail, and phone etc.

“I know one thing we’re hoping to do is add more multimedia,” said Carmena about future plans for The Whit Online.

Interested in getting involved with The Whit? Meetings are Monday 11:30 A.M. in the Publication Suite, Student Center or e-mail editor@thewhitonline.com

Before

After

Around the holiday season, people are more inclined to volunteer their time to those less fortunate. So I decided to ask a bunch of people around Rowan’s campus what they thought volunteerism means, or what volunteering actually means to them. Here’s what they said…

“Taking time out of your life to help someone else.”

-Marisa Schleimer, senior

“Putting the needs of others first, for a cause or something you believe in.”

Nicole Paterno, senior

“Volunteering means the act of giving back and providing help where it is truly needed.”

Steve Rue, junior

“For karma. If I do good things, good things will come back to me.”

-Katie Fitzpatrick, senior

“Doing something good for someone else around the community for the benefit of others with no personal gain.”

-Brielle Wilber, senior

“It means putting in time and help without being told to do so. Also, it is helping certain people or a cause by your own motivation.”

- Carly Buccino, freshman

“Volunteerism means to give up your time to help people without being forced.”

- Kyle Mongelluzzo, senior