Penn State supplies 'BaRocky Road' ice cream for inaugural gala

Thursday, January 15, 2009

BaRocky Road

From the Penn State public relations office:

University Park, Pa. -- When Barack Obama made a campaign visit to Penn State during the primaries last March -- which included a stop at the Dairy Research Center, where he bottle-fed a calf -- it was way too premature to order ice

Calf

cream from the University's legendary creamery for his inauguration.

But it turns out he didn't need to. Taking note of Obama's interest in dairy, and following up on a tip from inside the Beltway, the University's College of Agricultural Sciences has taken care of everything, coming up with three flavors to honor the president-elect and his new administration: "BaRocky Road," "Obama White House" and "BidenBerry." They will be served at the 2009 Pennsylvania Inaugural Gala the evening of Jan. 20.

Known around the world for its fabulous ice cream, Penn State's Berkey Creamery -- the largest on-campus creamery in the country -- has a tradition of concocting special flavors to commemorate significant events and famous people, such as football coach Joe Paterno (Peachy Paterno). In 2000, when the National Governors Association held its summer meeting at Penn State, the creamery made "Ridge's Road" ice cream for then-Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, and ended up selling it in the creamery salesroom for a few years.

Creamery manager Tom Palchak noted that he shipped 40 tubs, or 120 gallons, of the special flavors for the inaugural ball to the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington, D.C.

" 'BaRocky Road' is a rocky road or tin roof sundae flavor, vanilla ice cream with chunky add-ins such as peanuts, brownies, candy and chocolate swirl," he said. " 'Obama White House' is vanilla ice cream with maraschino cherries, and 'BidenBerry' is vanilla ice cream with red raspberry variegate through it."

Since I have transplanted myself from dog-land (JMU) to cat-land (PSU) I have been comparing the two. Honestly in most ways they come out even. Same kind of school spirit. Same kind of students (nice, smart, friendly, hold doors for others, hard partiers, etc). Same small town feel.

But I have found two big differences so far. Let me elaborate:

1) Parking.
No one complains about parking at PSU. There are not legions of parking police crawling every inch of every parking lot writing tickets. Students do not wait in line for 30 minutes in parking lots waiting for a space to open up. There is not an us versus them mentality. In fact, parking at Penn State seems to be very functional and well thought out. Amazing for a school twice the size. After observing this seemingly miraculous condition for a semester I think it is because (1) a large percentage of the students/faculty/staff walk, ride bikes, or take the bus to campus. A large percentage. And (2) The bus system, both on and off campus, works well is dependable and reliable. It's not free into the city ($1.25 per ride) but a lot of people do it every day without complaint.

Score one for the cats.

PSU

2) Inclement Weather.
Well, JMU wins this one hands down. Take today, for example. We are in an ice storm. Full blown ice storm. Not snow. Ice. Covering everything. Thick. And is Penn State closed? Nope. Was it delayed? Nope. Will it close early? Nope. Crazy. JMU would have closed last night at the announcement of an ice storm. Ha ha. The best Penn State can cough up is an announcement to keep your cars out of the parking lot after midnight so the physical plant folks can clear them without obstacles every few feet. Umm hmmm... Yep. They're hard core up here. JMU wins. No contest, really. I will miss the 5-10 snow days each year.

Score one for the dogs.

JMU

Some of you will be happy to know that the Penn State / State College powers that be did not just sign off on the shenanigans carte blanche. Got a newsfeed today that 14 people have been arrested and charged and they are trying to identify several others. The range of charges filed includes criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, arson, failure to disperse, resisting arrest and rioting, which is a felony.

Interestingly - the police department is using photos/videos posted online to track down specific individuals. If you need a little entertainment today, check out the website set up for anonymous identification. Sucks to be those people...

http://www.statecollegepa.us/index.asp?NID=1054

Penn State assumes undeserved role as contender

Penn State assumes undeserved role as contender

Tom Dienhart
Rivals.com College Football Senior Writer

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Back and forth they went.

Ohio State pushed. Penn State pulled. And so it went, for more than three grueling hours.

Penn State's fortunes turned when Penn State's Mark Rubin knocked the ball away from Terrelle Pryor.

More important, it kept Penn State steaming toward an unbeaten season … and a date in the BCS title game.

And that's unfortunate.

It's foolish to think a Big Ten team has any business on college football's biggest stage. But the No. 3 Nittany Lions now are poised to play for the championship in Miami. After being off next week, they travel to Iowa, then play host to Indiana and Michigan State. A 12-0 regular-season record is well within reach.

Sure, Penn State's run to 9-0 looks good. The offense has been spectacular, showing balance and explosiveness. The defense is fast, aggressive and opportunistic. And these Lions are resourceful, winning Saturday despite starting quarterback Daryll Clark leaving early in the fourth quarter after getting knocked loopy.

Backup quarterback Pat Devlin engineered the game's only touchdown with 6:25 remaining, barreling through a pile of players on a 1-yard scoring plunge. What else would you expect in a game such as this?

Penn State's defense did its part, limiting the Buckeyes to 287 yards, including just 61 on the ground. And Penn State generated two turnovers, including a fourth-quarter fumble by Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor that the Lions subsequently turned into the touchdown.

But this team – and this conference – doesn't deserve another chance at college football's biggest prize. Besides, Paterno is used to fashioning an unbeaten team, then getting left out of the championship party. That has happened four times: 1968, 1969, 1973 and 1994.

So, please, don't give us Penn State on Jan. 8, 2009, in Dolphin Stadium. Give us life, give us liberty, give us hope for a good game. That means give us Texas, Florida, Alabama, Georgia or USC. Heck, we'll even take Texas Tech and its diabolical offense and kooky coach. They all have been more impressive than – and likely would beat – any Big Ten team.

Even a perfect Penn State.

We pray that America won't have to watch another Big Ten belly-flop in the BCS title game. The Buckeyes have perfected that dive the past two seasons.

Look at the hideous history. First, there was Florida 41, Ohio State 14. Next, there was LSU 38, Ohio State 24. There is no need for a trilogy. If you've seen one slasher flick, you've seen them all.

Need more evidence that the Big Ten doesn't belong? Have you watched this season? The Big Ten's best non-conference win was Wisconsin's 13-10 triumph over Fresno State. The league had one chance to show the world it was big time – and Ohio State was utterly annihilated by USC 35-3.

Michigan is a mess. Wisconsin is weak. Iowa and Illinois are iffy. Michigan State is mediocre. Northwestern? Minnesota? Please.

Now, because the Big Ten has returned to its own sand box – and it's a small one – we are supposed to believe the school that built the biggest sand castle in the Midwest deserves access to college football's VIP room?

Ohio State has proven that's not the case.

The first photos have started hitting the web. I'll add more as they surface, but my guess is the rioters and riot photographers are still asleep or hung over. riot

Penn State had not beat Ohio State at OSU in something like 30 years, so it really was a big deal that they won last night. Personally, I have found Penn State football to be kind of boring because they are so good this year they've been beating all their opponents by 30ish points. Yaaaawwwwnnnnn... I didn't watch yesterday, but by all reports it was a great game.

Here are some lovely photos of Penn State students ripping apart downtown State College. Some of them are kinda gross. Sorry.

The crowd shot from an apartment balcony

poor tree... it did not deserve this...

a light pole

I believe that's one of the containers that holds the campus newspaper.

show of force... obviously ineffective

looks like they did arrest a few people

Let this be a lesson to you... pepper spray is NOT fun.

YouTube Videos...
The ones at the top just show the students excited and happy. The two at the bottom show the light poles coming down and the police using pepper spray...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH2fX62Eglg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZkHIlK64RQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT6iaOjOZrc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAKm2_yPXek

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwdeINhXiT4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFAUulcyxJs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S960SSPxGZE

My friends came up last weekend... yay! Here are some highlights:

... visiting every landmark and photo opp at Penn State
... arriving just as 107,000 people exited the football stadium. That is a LOT of people in case you were wondering.
... really good Indian food, really good pizza, and really bad bar food (and service)
... driving around on Saturday night yelling the "We are... Penn State" cheer out the car windows.
... watching the JMU football team whoop #1 App State's booty on TV. We are now #1. Yesssssssss!
... ice cream run at 10 pm
... probably lots of other stuff I'm forgetting.

Enjoy this photo tour of the weekend...

Cruising state college

The corner

Loving the Lion

A little too much loving.

1 comment

Way too much loving.

Fans and stadium

That 42 is a body paint jersey - impressive.

Scary sarah

Sarah loves joe

Jerms loves Bama

Stuffed nittany

I figured it was about time I posted something on what I'm actually studying up here at the good old PSU. Here's a run down on my classes and the question circling endlessly in my head... am I quantitative or qualitative?

First of all, what the heck is Mass Comm anyway, right? Watch this video if you'd like. It is aimed at undergrads, so it does not really apply to what I'm doing/studying, but it will give you an overview of what the field is all about.

My classes:

Issues in TV (Monday) - My favorite class this semester. We will be looking at tv as a communication genre through the qualitative (critical/cultural) research lens. Topics/issues we will cover: Political Economy of Television, Genre, Narrative and Flow, The Television Audience and Fandom, Advertising, Children’s Television, Adult Daytime TV, News, Primetime TV and Representation, Primetime TV and Reality, Globalization, and Digital Technology, and the Future of TV.

Colloquium (Tuesday) - Different faculty will attend each week to talk about their current research projects. This is both to educate us about what kinds of research are possible in the field and to recruit us to help them and join their research teams. This is especially important for me since my assistantship is in another division of the university, so I need both the awareness and the ability to get involved.

Quantitative Research Methods (Wednesday) - Well, this is the one I was so afraid of but I have to say I'm ok with it at this point. It is the introductory class in quantitative/empirical/scientific research methods and also a great feeder to getting published and presenting at conferences. The final project is to do a research project straight through from beginning to end. Last year's class had four small groups - three presented at national conferences, one present at a regional conference, and two won awards at the national conferences. Lofty goals, but the teacher is great and very supportive so we'll see. Topics we are covering: Conceptualization, Operationalization, Measurement, Realiability & Validity, Sampling, Survey Research, Experimental Research, Content Analysis, Descriptive Statistics, Inferential Statistics, Data Interpretation, Reporting Research.

Proseminar (Thursday) - Overview of the communication field from the quantitative research perspective - going back to greek philosophers all the way through current. Topics: Intellectual History, Research in the US, Current Themes, Analyzing Media Content and Media Audiences, Media Sociology and the Creation of Content, International Communication, Ethics, Legal Research, Media History, Media Technology, Social Change, and Democrary,

I am debating which of two tracks to pursue... I love the types of research done in the Media Effects Research Lab which is a quantitative/empirical track, but I think I may be more qualitative by nature. I'm thinking I may try to study the media (social networking, tv, etc) through a critical cultural lens (psychology/sociology/law/

Yesterday I spent most of the day trying to organize my notes from the past several weeks for my assistantship. You may wish to postpone reading this if you are at work because bosses generally frown upon their employees sleeping at work. However, if you need a cure for insomnia this should work like a charm!

Project Brain Dump

Community of Practice - Faculty Development Site

1. Software/platform – Movabletype?

2. COTS already there – create one for Fac Dev & invite people to contribute

3. “Just do it” – get something up by November (end of next OL 2000

4. Politics – win/win with guy championing Movabletype

5. Get survey results from Carol

6. Ideas

• Personal connections

• Ask the Expert - Faculty in Residence

• Examples of class docs

• Best Practices

• Live course to learn in (OL 2000)

• Links to exemplar courses (FERPA issues

• Ability to lurk in an active class, watch it unfold

• Leave content as static for future reference

• Discipline specific courses/examples

• FAQ’s

• Scenarios

• Case studies

• Calendar of events

• Tip of the day/week/month

    Collaboration with Alex on Faculty survey

    Create Event/Gathering of experts and novices to connect

    Personalized Learning Plan for online faculty

    Faculty Development Effectiveness

• Student satisfaction

• Faculty satisfaction
  

• Enrollment #’s

• Returning faculty

• Amount of faculty engagement

•  How prepared/comfortable faculty feel

•  Faculty survey/eval at end of course

•  Evidence of “teaching presence”

•  OL 2000 Survey 1 year later – still using? Hindsight? Effective?

Tutor/Mentor training for new faculty

OL 3000 for faculty who have taught 1-3 times

OL 1000 – authoring – come out with prepared syllabus to help in developing the course

Faculty Development Programs

•  Expand and increase

•  Emphasis in online teaching/learning, faculty competencies

Faculty Management Database

•  Method of tracking online faculty

•  Convenient, easily manipulated

•  Who/discipline/where in process

•  Know who to target for different sessions

•  Manipulate/sort/identify human resources for dev topics

•  Sue Repine

•   Takes too much time – how much is too much
• 10-15% ok
• More than 15% not ok

 Competencies for online teaching (COTS)

 Quality Assurance

Technologies to Investigate

Ning

Skype

Sln.suny.edu/teachingsurvey

Sln.suny.edu/conference

http://tinyurl.com/69zw41

Penn State Online

LAMS learning activity tool (tools from there? Case studies? Applications?)

Diigo

Voicethread.com

Jing

Captivate

Meebo

Concepts to Investigate

Community of Practice

Community of Interest

Community of Inquiry

Quality Matters/Assurance

Carol’s survey/Educause article

Pedagogy, angygogy, hudagogy

Michael Wesch YouTube videos

•   Vision of Sts Today

•  Machine is Using Us

•  A Portal to Media Literacy

PSU goal 20,000 --> 50,000

•  How scale services

•  Find new program for course development

•  Faculty develop own courses

•  Heavily templated/tools/resources

So, I've been officially inducted into the brotherhood of communicators. For those of you out there who think I already communicate too much - watch out! Because now I will be trained to communicate in an amazing array of new and different ways. Muh wah ha ha haaaaaaaa...

Yesterday I met my new classmates who are amazing. They are also my new friends on Facebook (waves hi to them in case they found my blog feed). Here are snippets from their bios. Tell me they aren't incredible? And tell me again how lucky I am to be included in this group.

... KA - JD degree, practicing lawyer
...JC - Master's in Media Studies, studying media law and policy
...MD - 8 years as faculty, studyin communication issues surrounding terrorism
...RDT - Master's in Geography, researching human agency/bodily representations in professional wrestling
...KH - Master's in Mass Comm, researching convergence in newsrooms
...BH - JD, law faculty at Penn State
...HJ - Atmospheric Science degree, 10 years as journalist in China
...GSK - Master's in Mechanical Engineering, studying movie media cognition and spectator emotions
...RL - Master's in Media Studies, professional experience in post-production for Smallville & The O.C.
...NMC - Master's in Marketing & Int Business, 7 years experience in public relations
...AN - Master's in Political Science, studying politice & cultural communication focused on the environment
...SS - Master's in Journalism, 40 awards for her work, tenure track faculty at another university

Oooooooo.... Ahhhhhh.... Seriously amazing. I am excited to get to know them and get started on this great adventure. There is also a group of 9 students entering the Master's program that we will be taking classes with at times. They are also fabulous.

Things I learned during orientation:

1) I already have a reading assignment. Yep. Before school even starts.
2) Penn State's health insurance plan for graduate assistants covers dental & vision in addition to the usual medical stuff. Woohoo!
3) It is sometimes hard to tell the faculty from the students. There are some very young looking faculty whom I hopefully did not offend too much by asking them what year they were in the program. lol... Oops!
4) It is possible to get from my house to the Comm Building within 30 minutes if you, ohhhhhh, say, set your alarm clock wrong and get up 45 minutes before orientation begins on your first official day in a new program where you are hoping to make a good first impression. Just hypothetically speaking, of course.
5) The class I have been freaking out about for the past few months IS going to be hard but actually also looks like fun. Go figure.

That's it in a nutshell. My new obsession is Second Life. If you also live there, friend my avatar - Stevie Magician.

Hello Voxies,

Thank you MexicanShrimpCocktail for the nudge. I am alive.

My last post about the money issues sent me into a two week stress-session where I ate my weight in chocolate and fretted about the future. But I'm ok... I was just in one of those places where talking about it made it worse and everything seemed to lead back to talking about it. If I posted anything on here it would be doom and gloom and what-if's. So I practiced avoidance theory, holed up and beat Big Kahuna Reef 2, ate chocolate, and worked on getting my plan figured out.

Plus my brother was here and he is fun and was a nice distraction, so I spent a lot of time hanging out with him.

Tender moments full of cat love.

Hiking

Lol... I love this picture. He looks like a Borg and that is some SWEET hair. Lovely.

1 comment

Borg

So, for now, here's my new place in State College. I am VERY lucky to have gotten in because they only put a sign in the yard to advertise so I was just fortunate enough to drive by. Plus they were concerned about my cats and hesitant to allow them in. But, I won them over with my dazzling personality and credit score and it is mine! Well, for the next three years anyway. Ha ha.

A beautiful place. I am excited. It's only 1.5 miles from campus, so I can walk or ride my bike. A bit more expensive than I wanted, but options two and three were not really even close in comparison. This will be my sanity and sanctuary during the PhD program which I am sure will push me past my limits at times.I will need a place to go home to that recharges me and helps me relax and unwind.

front

back yard