The Ends Have Come

After spending most of my Sunday writing a paper, I am now officially halfway finished with my first course for my Master's Degree in Education from ACU. This paper I wrote today was a challenge as my brain just wasn't having it, but I worked my way through it and produced what I would consider to be an acceptable essay.

The course has been quite a beast up to this point. For the degree program I'm basically taking one course at a time. There are 10 altogether. The one I'm taking now is called Negotiation and Mediation. It's been interesting. There was always a stigma in my mind about online degree programs. I think that's the same with most people. When I tell people I'm earning my Masters online the response is usually something like, "So...like Devry?" I can't speak for some of the online Bachelors degree programs like Devry and what not, but I can say this - judging from the first 4 weeks of this class, this ACU online degree is legit. I've worked extremely hard. Kelly can attest to that. I spend several hours reading and writing each night, and my Saturdays and Sundays are almost completely devoted to doing school work. I don't know what this will bring for me in the future, but I now know that once I get my M. Ed. degree it will be just as legit and hard-earned as one I could have gotten by going to school on campus. Maybe even more so because I have to balance a day job in the meantime. I'm feeling really good about it at this point.

One of the interesting things about it is that since we're not in a classroom, the professor has to be creative about how he teaches. There has been a lot of group work and a lot of videos. This past week, there was a podcast featuring a mediation simulation. I thought the voices of the actors sounded familiar. After a few minutes of trying to place them, I realized that it was Adam Hester and Gary Varner from ACU theatre. After all these years, those two are still contributing to my education.

Well it's series finale season in the world of TV. This year is going to be especially tough as my two all-time favorite shows will be having their series finales on back-to-back nights. Lost, as everyone in the world knows, has its finale Sunday night. We'll be cutting off all communication wih the outside world starting tomorrow morning so as not to be spoiled. We're going over to Dion's tomorrow night to watch the finale with a small group of devoted fans. I've been a dedicated follower of Lost ever since the very beginning. I remember being at the lakehouse and seeing a commercial for Lost and thinking, "That looks kind of interesting. And it's got the hobbit from The Lord of the Rings, so I guess I'll watch it." I watched the premiere with my mom a few weeks later, and I remember getting to the end of the Pilot episode and thinking, "Wow. That was awesome. And what the heck killed the pilot?" I can't believe it's coming to an end. It's going to be crazy.

In addition to that, 24 will have its finale on Monday night. Though I feel 24 has declined in quality drastically over the past few seasons, I've been a devoted fan for a long time. I didn't see the first season when it aired because I was still at ACU and a theatre major has no time for watching TV. But when I was living with Andy the next year, he recommended that I watch an episode of season 2. I did and I was hooked. After season 2 ended, Andy and I went back and watched all of season 1 on DVD that summer. I believe that season 1 of 24 remains to date one of the best all around seasons of television ever. They've jumped the shark a bit since then, but I'll watch the finale this week and bid farewell to a great series and an awesome character.

I've been having a lot of dreams about Lost and 24 lately because of these finales. There's going to be a big void when the Jacks in my life (Bauer and Shephard) are no longer around. I'm going to have to find some new TV to watch. Any recommendations?

In honor of the 24 finale, here is an example of how it is popular even here in Japan. You ever wondered what Jack Bauer eats during his 24-hour days? The answer: Calorie Mate.