You can change in a day
In the movie about the Enron scandal: "The Smartest Guys in the Room", the CEO Jeff Skilling supposedly woke up one day and transformed himself from a paunchy, balding, glasses wearing, semi-quiet guy, into a fit, post-lasik, attractive, alpha male.Not the best inspiration, but you can change in a day. I've been neglecting this project for a host of reasons and I'm turning a corner - for real this time. No more excuses. I've bought my books, designed the survey I've been procrastinating about (click on the post title for the link), and sent out the emails I've been on the fence about. I can do this. I just need to take deep breaths and keep pushing ahead.
In other news, I finally had my interview with the president of my alma mater. I was expecting more help and insight but I think it's hard to give help when the person doesn't yet know what they need. She mostly wanted to follow up with me about my life after college and give me advice on why I shouldn't run away and do an American wine tour for a year.
But, she was helpful in a lot of ways. She re-iterated that I should focus on more than just faculty and based on talking to my peers, I think she and others are right. It's the undergraduates, recent alumni, and graduate students who are probably going to be more into this. I'd like to target professors, but maybe they will be for phase 2, not phase 1 of this project.
She also suggested an implementation idea that I didn't think about: going to Web 2.0 conferences and seeing what's out there. I'm glad she suggested it because just via searching and looking up some of the companies who regularly attend, I already found a couple potentially viable platforms I could build upon. She also suggested Mahlo.com - a human search engine. If nothing else I could use it to do a more intelligent search to see if something like what I want to do already is out there (of course this depends on who frequents Mahlo.com but should still be a good start.
I think my favorite part of the interview was when she said:
"Creative expression is synergistic with being a scientist/engineer whether in a product based or research role. It is the wave of the future and is growing at the college level. It's coming, but how wide spread or how fast the change will occur I don't know."
Now I just need to find out how wide spread it is...
She also relayed a story about how while at another college she ran into a Dean who was also an artist and just being able to say to one another "I am an artist" and not have it be pushed to the side in favor of a conversation on science or being a Dean was a novel concept. And how having a colleague who not only understood what it meant to be an artist, Dean, and scientist, but with whom you cold collaborate artistically with was truly refreshing.
The interview went well. I plan on contacting her again once I have a more concrete idea of what I'll be doing and have some things implemented.
I feel positive about this project and I know I can do this. I just need to kick myself into gear, focus, and get it done.
wish me luck =)
