Made in the USA

Hal writes:

Every spend money using gift cards? Nice concept. It's not really your money, but you are able to acquire purchases through them. As a part of moving into the new residence hall, I have been asked to help select the RD office furniture (except the colors, for obvious reasons). The furniture to be purchased comes from one web site that I was allowed to look at. In the end, I will end up ordering a $300 office chair, $700 desk, $250 bookshelf as well as two other chairs and a file cabinet. And that's just for starters. I think that what first made me feel off was that, with my current salary, I would not purchase any of these items. Take the bookshelf. I could get a Target/Wal-Mart bookshelf that would hold the same amount of books, albeit less quality, for 10% of the total cost of the furniture. But what you have to realize is that with the red tape that we have to deal with for ordering, there are no options but to order from this specific company. And of course, there is the rumor that the people building this furniture are residents of Wisconsin making less than a dollar an hour (people in jail). Needless to say, I feel bad about being a part of this expensive process and I can guarantee you that I will take care of the furniture as long as I am an RD for the building. What do you think? Should I feel guilt over this?

I've been biking for the past couple of evenings. I'm still timid about going any great distances, so most of the rides consist of weaving through the non-busy streets of Platteville. In my travels I have come across other bikers who I exchange nods with as we pass in opposing directions. The highlight of yesterday's journey was seeing a group of cardinals chirping at me from a telephone wire. I have also found that my MP3 player headphones fit with my bike helmet (which you should not do because you can't hear cars bearing down on you) but it makes the rides feel less like exercise.

Tonight is the eve of the first of 11 registration days for incoming first-year students. On the evenings before, I assist with an ice cream social for students and families spending the night on campus. Tonight we had a group of 10 and it was fun to chat with anxious and excited students. The current students who work for the campus to help plans these days were around to answer questions. A few answers were brash and off the cuff, but for the most part they helped but some worried people at ease. During the actual registration day I will assist with a housing presentation (meaning I click the mouse for the power point), answer questions at a resource fair and in the afternoon work with a residence hall tour. I enjoy the admissions work and was happy that this was one of my summer assignments. In addition, I put together two display boards for the event. I normally don't dabble in the arts and crafts very often, but it's good for me to go through the process of selecting photos, working with the computer to design, and after printing and laminating, arranging items for the display. I have coworker who excels in this area (my femtor KJ) and she enjoys the work, but it was good for me to go through the process (even if I did use some summer RAs to help me at the end).

Movie update. I'm not usually a movie person, but my TV viewing has gone down since the summer started and that is fine by me. Anna and I saw Over the Hedge which was a fun movie, not the best, but I had some good laughs along with the other children at the matinee. Mike also loaned me two movies so I saw I, Robot (really liked it) and Assault on Precent 13 (what I expected, but a little more gore than anticipated).

Special prayer request for my friend Brian's church with the struggle he and the other pastors (as well as the congregation) are having with a leadership issue in their church.