Sometimes Things Take a Little Longer, There an Gulf Coast Time.

/Observations

Recently I’ve heard the song “Gulf Coast Time” by Roger Creager a lot on Radio Margaritaville. It’s a nice song, and it’s even nicer that iTunes has the lyrics. Or at least it says it has the lyrics. I don’t think they’re quite right. Here’s what iTunes has…

Yeah… I’m not sure what the town in you letter said, or what the road rills are. Teasters of key land are interesting to contemplate, and I definitely recommend talking about the time someone gave you toast. Reggae me down?

Obviously some speech to text algorithm had fun with this one. If you would like to see the actual lyrics, I’ll put them below.

Gulf Coast Time – Roger Creager
 
I like the way the salty warm breeze feels
As I make another cast with this old rod and reel
Sounds like things are going well from the tone of your letter
Am I doing OK? I guess you could say, I’m keeping my head above water.
 
On the deck of this old salt water lady,
Dancing across the waves.
The seaside world slows down to an idle
The sun sets red over Copano Bay
You moved on with your life in California, I’ll move on with mine.
Sometimes things take a little longer, here on Gulf Coast Time.
 
This last year’s getting back to the simple things
Like the taste of this fresh key lime in my drink
Took that watch you gave me, tossed it about a mile off shore
Just another anchor around me, weighing me down, that I don’t need anymore.
 
On the deck of this old salt water lady,
Dancing across the waves.
The seaside world slows down to an idle
The sun sets red over Copano Bay
You moved on with your life in California, I’ll move on with mine.
But sometimes things take a little longer, here on Gulf Coast Time.
 
And I know I’m getting better, with every breath of ocean I breathe in 
And my soul gets stronger, every moment I spend
 
On the deck of this old salt water lady,
Dancing across the waves.
The seaside world slows down to an idle
And the sun sets red over Copano Bay
You moved on with your life in California, I’ll move on with mine.
But sometimes things take a little longer, here on Gulf Coast Time.
Sometimes things take a little longer, here on Gulf Coast Time.

By Roger Creager & Trent Willmon

ProfLife – Being Productive Out of the Office

/Personal, Psychology, Technology

One of the great things about being a professor is that we’re essentially trained to be project managers – people who are specialists in a given topic area but also trained through graduate school to be self-sufficient. It surprises many to learn that when I’m assigned a course to teach, I receive very few ‘mandated’ guidelines. Yes, periodically we have required sections in our syllabi on university policies, or perhaps my curriculum committee (of which I’m a member) requires certain courses to use the same book or have a common assignment. But otherwise, no one tells me what content I must teach, what assignments I must give, or how to evaluate my student’s work. The same is true in the realm of scholarship and service – I am expected to select my own projects, manage them to completion, and provide service to my institution and discipline. When it comes to my formal workday, I’m expected to be in the classroom to teach when assigned, to be available for 10 office hours a week, and to be available for meetings as needed. Beyond that, there is no 8-5 expectation on professors – we’re asked to fit our lives around specific class times, not a traditional workday (Which is also why, at my institution, we don’t get personal leave).

However this level of freedom can be challenging for some. Recently one of my colleagues posted on Twitter a request:

As someone who has worked from home a lot in my past (I lived 50 minutes away from my undergrad institution, 120 minutes away from my graduate institution, and a 2 hour commute away from my postdoc), I’ve picked up a few tips I’m happy to share.

1. Have The Essentials At Home

My Home Office Setup, an Apple 27” Cinema Display connected to a 2015 MacBook Pro, with full size keyboard, external trackpad. Wireless headphones and desk fan off to the right.

It is extremely important to have everything you need in your home workspace. In 2010 I bought a 27” Apple Cinema Display for work, and while pricey ($999) I fell in love with it at work. So when I had enough money, I bought a second one for my home office. There is absolutely no way I’d be able to do as much work at home if I didn’t have a large monitor on par with what I have at my office. The portability of a laptop, in my case a 2015 MacBook Pro, is key for a mobile professional – but you need to have a good place to park it at home where you can enjoy larger full-sized screens and peripherals. Also included in the setup is a full keyboard with number pad (essential for entering data), and an external trackpad so I don’t have to reach forward to touch the one on my Mac. Finally I have a set of wireless headphones (Beats Solo 3’s) that I can use to block out the world if need be.

However physical setup is only one part of the essentials – you also need to be able work on anything you need, anywhere you are. To do this, I leverage cloud storage extensively (OneDrive is my preferred storage provider these days, I purchase a home version of Office 365, which provides MS Office + 1 TB of space), as well as iCloud storage. I also install TeamViewer (Free for personal use) on my computer on campus so that I can securely connect up to it remotely in case I do happen to leave a file there. I also never use USB drives if I can avoid them – it’s horrible to have just 1 version of a file, and even worse if you lose the USB drive that the file is stored on, or if the USB drive fails!

2. Have a working To-Do Setup, With Start Dates

One thing I realized years ago was that I needed a To-Do list, and more importantly, I needed one that didn’t show me things I couldn’t do just yet. Having dozens of tasks ahead can be daunting, but it’s even worse when you see things that there is no way you can complete – perhaps you’re waiting on someone else, or they’ve told you “We’ll make a decision on that 3 months from now”. Leave the to-do on the list, and you feel like you’re not accomplishing anything. Take it off, and you never remember to put it back.

So years ago I started setting “start” dates on all of my tasks, so that I wouldn’t see them on my list until the first day I could do them. This helps me focus much more on what I need to do, versus what I will do down the line. It also means that I don’t fear putting a task on my list for the far future. I’ve actually had people remark to me “Wow, I can’t believe you remembered that” – it wasn’t memory, it was the item I put on my to-do list a year ago!

3. Be Mobile

I didn’t have an office for the first half of my professional life. I lived completely out of a bag, setting up shop at coffee shops, fast food restaurants, libraries, and in my car. As a former Windows Mobile MVP, I learned a number of tricks for staying productive while away from a dedicated workspace. They include…

  • Having a dedicated set of mobile tools – power cables, chargers, mobile mouse, anything I could possibly need. I don’t take all of them everywhere everyday, but I do keep them in a special case at home, so I can easily pull out what I need for that day. Also makes traveling a breeze – everything is in one place, and I don’t have to tear apart my home every time I pack – my bedside charger stays where it is, for example.
  • Exploring all possible productivity applications to see if they’re worthwhile. Some are, some aren’t. For example, recently I’ve been using Siri Shortcuts on my iPhone and iPad to script my nightly journal entry, to quickly open up files that I use frequently (e.g., open this specific spreadsheet), and more. Lately the mobile Microsoft Office suite has really stepped up it’s game – I can pull up pretty much anything on my phone or iPad that I can bring up on my computer.
  • Upgrade your tools as needed and use them to your advantage. See this as an investment in yourself and your productivity. While it’s tempting to tell people “Look, I just use my phone to make phone calls”, you’re basically saying to them “Look, I use this thing for just a small fraction of what it can do.”

4. Stop saying “I don’t have time”

I’ve heard people say “I don’t have time to learn X” or “I don’t have time to work on Y”. To them, I say “You can’t afford NOT to learn X” or “work on Y”. XKCD comics has a good example of what I mean here – this one. Think of learning new skills as an investment – one that crosses over from work to personal life, office to home productivity.

5. Have a Clear Goal

Finally, when I’m working remotely, I realize I need a clear goal of what I need to do. When working at my office, this happens somewhat naturally – my mind natively thinks of things that I do at work. However when I’m out of my office, I need to remind myself (with the help of my to-do list) what needs to get done, when it needs to get done, and what today’s task builds on for the future. It helps me avoid distraction, because I know what needs to get done. I’m not wandering aimlessly at home thinking “Wouldn’t it be more fulfilling to watch TV right now” – I instead have the thought “It’s going to be great to get this done before I go to my office tomorrow morning”.

Working from home (or anywhere other than your office) is a freeing experience, and something that I definitely think is useful for an academic – part of our jobs is to be in tune with the world around us, lest we become antiquated. However it can be challenging, and ultimately everyone finds their own solution. Just keep plugging away at the problems you find in your own system until you have it up and running smoothly!

Download All The Music You Could Ever Want, Legally, for $29

/Technology

Just a quick post in case you’re old fashion and like downloading actual copies of what you listen to, instead of streaming. I’ve been using this solution for 2-3 years now, and have been pretty happy with it:

  1. Find the song you want on YouTube – Pretty much everything is there these days.
  2. Use a tool to download it – I prefer Wondershare AllMyTube – for $29 you can download videos or mp3’s from YouTube and a bunch of other sites. Great for educators to save videos you worry might disappear or if you have a flaky internet connection in your classroom.
  3. Use MusicBrainz Picard (free) to scan the files you download and add appropriate meta data to them.

That’s it. Now you have a shiny MP3 file that you can import into your music manager of choice, including iTunes.

I’m Excited… I Swear!

/Personal

I teach psychology for a living, and each and every time I talk about the Big 5 personality traits, I reflect a bit on my own mental makeup. If you’re curious, it looks something like this


What stands out?

Aside from the fact that I don’t tend to favor the middle in any factor, the one there that might seem amazing is Emotional Stability – the 99th percentile. What is Emotional Stability you ask? Well, it’s the opposite end of the the spectrum commonly known as Neuroticism. You can also think of it as Emotional Reactivity. And as you can see from the above… I basically don’t react.

Now not reacting has benefits. I rarely feel depressed or anxious (by rarely, I mean perhaps 2-3 times per year for a period of about 1-2 hours), I don’t “freak out” over many things, and I tend not to panic. In fact, I am the epitome of the phrase If you see me running, try to keep up. 

However when you have a very neutral to positive mood the majority of the time, it also means you don’t react to positive events the same way as most people. Tons of good things have happened to me in my life – far too many to name. And for the most emotionally charged, good or bad, I always feel that I don’t emote enough compared to most. And while it’s somewhat normal for some to be stoic at funerals (as opposed to throwing oneself on the coffin), I’ve had a few instances on the opposite end of the spectrum where I clearly did not communicate to others the level of positivity that I felt. Here’s an example: October 16 this year.

What was on my desk on October 16 this year.

Bosses Day

At work I have the privilege of leading a small team of dedicated professionals, and this year on the somewhat-dubious holiday of Bosses Day, they showered me with gifts. Playful certificates, donuts, a gift certificate, and a personalized mug that read “World’s Best Boss” on one side, and something fairly transgressive (a.k.a. profane) on the side that faces me if I were to drink from it. 

Now when I saw this on my desk, my mood elevated quite a bit. The day wasn’t bad by any stretch, but after seeing their hard work, my little grinch-y heart grew three sizes, to steal a seasonal phrase. And while internally my mind kept thinking “That’s so nice of them, I’m touched they thought of me, that they came up with original ideas, and that they understood exactly what I would love to have the most on Bosses’ day”, the best I could do was go out to them and thank them repeatedly. 

Later, I heard through the grapevine, that my reaction, the reaction of someone with an emotional stability of the 99th percentile, was a bit confusing. With some wondering if I truly liked the presents or if I was just being nice. This is one of the most misunderstood thing about us emotional stable types – our emotions don’t get “big” enough by most standards. 

Over the next year, I’m looking forward to a ton of events that are going to be positively charged – vacations with friends and family, a family wedding, and more. However at each one, I’ll likely feel just a little bit of self-consciousness about my reaction. So if you see me (or other non-neurotics), and we say we’re happy, please just believe us. And if you’re one of those people who is on the other end of the spectrum, who wrestle with anxiety, mood swings, and more, it might be some solace to realize that you also have the ability to experience more passionate and “loud” emotions. 

Oh, and before I finish this “mind rant” of sorts, I should probably point out that I wouldn’t change my personality – I’m quite happy with who I am, while also maintaining a growth mindset. So perhaps this year I’ll invest some time in learning to act excited. If that sounds crazy, it’s actually a method of therapy for those on the Autism spectrum. While I don’t have a problem recognizing a suitable reaction, I do have a bit of work to do to regularly produce it!

Be well,
Jon.

Open In Case of Friday Emergency

/Personal
It hangs on my office wall… looking ominous

Students and Staff alike often wonder…

… What is in this mysterious manila envelope taped to my office wall. Well, here’s the story. Friday, September 2, 2016 was the last day of a crazy week. My first year as FYS Coordinator, I had a ton of things going on at the beginning of that school year. And this was about 2 weeks in, when I sat at a point of utter exhaustion. After speaking about this exhaustion for quite a few days in advance, I walked into my office to the following scene.

So now you know… inside that envelope is the contents to remedy another Friday emergency!

DSU Probs: I Need My Schedule But Forgot My PIN!

/DSUProbs

DSU Probs is my series of informative blog posts for Delta State Students. Other schools may use similar systems, but your mileage may vary.

Need to find your current schedule but you don’t have your PIN? It’s easy – just log into DSU Online Services (By going to http://www.deltastate.edu/mydsu) and click on “View Registration Information”. Here’s what the button looks like:

Help… After 14 Years, I Still Haven’t Figured Out How To Blog Regularly

/Personal

They say that you never stop learning, and I hope that’s true because there is still so much for me to learn. Like how to remember to update my blog regularly. About 3 months ago I started trying to make at least one entry in my Day One journal per day, just to have something to look back on. Perhaps this school year I’ll try to extend this mindset to my blog. Averaging a new post every 4 months… I don’t think I can get any worse!

DSU Probs: I have an Override but Banner Self-Service Still Says My Class Is Full!

/DSUProbs

DSU Probs is my series of informative blog posts for Delta State Students. Other schools may use similar systems, but your mileage may vary.

Did you get an override but DSU Online still says your class is full? This is because the system doesn’t check to see if you have that override until you try to register. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Log into DSU Online and get to the “Register for Classes” screen.

2. On that screen, click the “Enter CRNs” option at the top

3. Type the CRN number for the course into the CRN box, and hit “Add to Summary”

4. Click the Submit button at the lower right to attempt registration. It should now allow you in, even though the class is full. If not, contact your advisor with the full error message you receive, so that the issue can be corrected.

Monday Haiku Revisited

/Personal

An artist named Mike Meulstree took my Monday Haiku from a few months ago and made a very nice piece of art! Hope the struggle isn’t too real for my readers and friends today!

Load Data From Your R Script Directly, No Files Needed

/Technology

Ran across this nice little trick a few months back. One of the things I miss about SAS was the ability to copy/paste data directly into a SAS script. While it’s nice to load from an external file, for small datasets it can be more useful to have everything in just one file. This is especially useful with students who have trouble understanding the concept of a working directory or file paths in a smartphone app dominated world.

Here’s what I found months ago (I believe on Stack Overflow):

Input = ("Student Pretest Posttest
A 25 27
B 23 23
C 21 22
D 23 29
E 23 24
F 21 19
"); 
Data = read.table(textConnection(Input),header=TRUE)
t.test(Data$Pretest,Data$Posttest,paired=T)

There are no line numbers on that snippet – you’ve simply got 5 variables with 5 lines of data. The data is then read through a textConnection function into a data table. You can now work with it as you would any other data set.