Roger's View of the World, Love and Seafood Gumbo!
Seize the Day! Put no trust in the morrow! — Horace
Karen placed a link on my blog, actually all of our blogs, on a ‘twitter search engine’. This is very cool! First of all, it gives you the opportunity to see what everyone is talking about… and sometimes… they are actually talking about you!
So, I plugged in to see if anyone, and I mean ANYONE, was talking about ‘bread pudding’… and surprisingly, quite a few were talking about it…
enjoy!
Roger Freberg
Newspapers and colleges are suffering. Is there a connection?
Well, what we can say is both are losing ‘subscribers’ for — I suspect — some of the very same reasons. In my humble opinion, both have lost their way, forgotten who they serve and the lesson that people ‘expect a prize for playing this game.’ When what was once promised is not delivered, folks find an alternative.
You can write off or explain away the demise of newspapers by the growth of the internet or the high cost of a newspaper. Costs are relative, after all, cable is much more expensive and it has few issues… as it delivers what it promises. If newspapers were viewed as an important contributor to someone’s daily life, love would find a way. Colleges — sadly — have also been losing their luster…. much of it self-inflicted.
Btw, where have all the men gone? You won’t find them in school. In California, one California university sports 80 % female students and this isn’t a ‘historically female institution.” The trend is everywhere, universities have limited appeal to men and this is not good for society. In addition, institutions and individuals are shifting their focus away from colleges as the hope for a better life that universities represented has proven less valid. Recently the American Association of University Professors wrote:
“just over 10 percent of the colleges laid off employees ( Survey completed 1/09), and another 26 percent were considering layoffs. More than 40 percent said they had imposed partial freezes on faculty hiring, and nearly 60 percent had imposed freezes on their hiring. About 6 percent said they had reduced benefits, and 18 percent of the remainder considering doing so. Half of all respondents said they had postponed or canceled building projects or were planning to do so.
Public institutions reported being affected by cuts imposed by statewide mandates, while private colleges are suffering — and anticipating more suffering — as a result of more families being able to afford the full costs of college. nearly 60 percent of all colleges said they were already seeing a decline in donations.”
Rather than face the challenge honestly, many universities point to the high cost of education as the sole hindrance and barrier to entry and — secondarily –our troubling economy as the cause of their suffering. The sad truth is that folks won’t buy what you are selling if it doesn’t deliver. As Ba’al says,”no flash No photo.” ( I like the way he says it) It’s all about delivering measurable results ( like jobs) and many academicians don’t undestand that… yet.
Laura, Karen and I have had some great discussions on the value of the practical and the theoretical in academia. They have some great ideas and I hope that others are thinking about how to reinvigorate, reenergize and reshape the university experience to contribute real value to our society and the world.
Roger Freberg
Look for this article on Yahoo and Twitter… You won’t on Google
Thanks to Karen, I have been exploring how to do background images for Twitter… who says you can’t teach old boomers new tricks?
If you’re on Facebook also get on Twitter… hey, I able to follow Pete Carroll, UPI News, and ESPN’s every breath every day! Great Fun! Oh yeah, the background for Twitter… here’s a link I put up explaining how to make your own custom background.
Here’s my page on Twitter background step-by-step !
Have fun!
Roger Freberg
PS. Here’s a few other sites members of this family are doing: Laura’s Psychology , Laura’s BioPsych, and Karen’s Public Relations
Okay, I am a big fan of sports, married a sports fanatic and have three sports enthusiasts for daughters… life is good.
So, obviously I follow SC football Head Coach Pete Carroll when he joined ‘twitter’... yes, I was one of the early followers. ( does that sound snooty enough?) What I have learned about ‘twitter’ I credit to my daughter Karen ( SC athlete, record holder and masters graduate from Annenberg’s impressive PR program at SC) and… yes… Pete Carroll, himself.
Coach Carroll and his staff continue to refine and focus their image, improve their message, target their audiences and present the best product year after year. Of course, this is what SC does! They are always ‘cutting edge.’ SC finds a wonderful balance between theoretical and practical, to quote a great American Psychologist:
“the truth is what works” — William James
So I captured Coach Carroll’s background image to see how he did it… and where he has it hosted: Amazon.com!
SC continues to amaze, inform and educate me… it’s what they do!
Twitter on? Fight on!
Roger Freberg
PS. Yes, I am on ‘twitter’ ,too!
Our family has always embraced technology. It is educational and it can be a lot of fun!
I have enjoyed facebook as a way to keep in touch with folks, but I am finding that Twitter is a nice way to easily follow people, organizations and news in a convenient format straight to your phone… or on-line.
All three of my daughters: Kristin, Karen and Karla are tech savvy and it causes their mother and I to work very hard to keep up and very occasionally impress them! I noticed that SC Trojan Head football coach Pete Carroll was on Twitter and I added him and began following him on Twitter. Nobody does it as good as SC when it comes to doing what works… and it inspired me to put up a background for my Twitter site. Here’s where the family contest came in… everyone wanted to do their own! WOW… they look great!
Now, I can follow various culinary chefs, the Trojans and the musings of friends and family from the comfort of my phone. It’s really nice to stay in touch. Try Twitter
Roger Freberg