I'm sitting on an American Airlines S80 jet, flying to Cupertino to meet with some folks from Apple about the College of Informatics, the Center4Informatics and how we feel that Apple might fit in with that vision.

As I think about that last sentence I need to re-phrase. I'm not seated as much as wedged into the "E" - or center - seat on an American Airlines S80 flying tube of aluminum hurtling miles above the surface of the earth. We just passed over Albuquerque, or so the pilot informed us. From the center seat I don't hold any control over the windows, or can I see out of the open windows. So we may actually be near Seattle. Or Costa Rica. But either of those would add significant time on the trip, so I hope we really were over Albuquerque.

I rarely fly American Airlines. I don't see that changing in the near future. Beyond there being no in-flight entertainment AA has begun 'nickel-and-dime-ing' their passengers. Bags of cashews are $3. A bottle of water is $2. I understand that the airline industry is supposedly incredibly competitive, but this kind of treatment isn't going to win me over as a customer. I'll gladly pay more for a bit more elbow room and some kind of interruption to the 5 hours of sitting that is a left coast flight. Mentally I'm already booking with Delta for Vegas in April.

Our day and a half of meetings at 1 Infinite Loop come during the week before classes start - a particularly crazy time to be away from campus, especially when just yesterday - one week from the class start - I was scrambling to fill a teaching position after a prof walked away from her class. She got an opportunity to move to the University of Missouri. Oh well. After some serious shuffling of personnel we now have a full stable of professors, but students entering classes next week may be surprised by the person standing at the front of the room. The EMB 100-003, MWF Media Literacy class probably won't be affected too much by Eileen Drust taking over for Denis Mueller, but the EMB 140-001 TR Aesthetics class may be a bit relieved to find that I'm not teaching that section when Denis walks in. And the EMB 260-001 TR Writing for the Media class will probably be a bit disappointed when I show up. But the classes are being taught by profs who have a deep interest in those subjects, and that's what I care about.

This is going to be an exciting school year yet again, and not just because we'll find out if I'm going to be tenured (and thus inflicted upon impressionable youth FOREVER!) but because by the end of the academic year we should have at least preliminary plans for the Center4Informatics from the architects. While this is an exhilarating prospect - designing a building for what we do - it is also an exhausting project. And ground is still a year from breaking.

OK, we are heading west. We just passed over the Grand Canyon, and I caught a glimpse. Whew - heading in the right direction.

Other random thoughts:

On the way to the airport this morning (at 4:30 am) pulled through the intersection of Delta and Columbia Parkway. As the light from the intersection faded away I saw two deer standing in the right hand lane of Columbia. A fawn was catching a quick bite from mom, right there on the road. Just added some perspective about who really is in charge of this planet - no not the quadrupeds, but something higher. God, Allah, Mother Nature, Tao, Chaos - in my mind they're all names for That Which Puts Humans Back In Their Place.

A "Forgetting" update. I've had a few folks inquire about the status of the Forgetting Project. I've begun moving the HD footage to SD, which is providing an incredible amount of flexibility in the image composition. Since I'm (essentially) using the higher pixel count of HD on a smaller screen I can alter framing without blowing the image up, and therefore without degrading the image clarity. From that we'll clean up some sound, I'm toying with an additional scene idea, and we'll add interviews with Alzheimer caregivers and their families. After so much time and energy dedicated to teaching and meetings and planning and negotiating on the NKU campus it is absolutely wonderful to be refocused on a creative project.

The 48 Hour Film Project is complete for 2007. We once again had some incredible movies and some ... learning. The winning movie, "Held in Sway" by Mirepoix Pictures, was really a piece of art. I have high hopes for it in the international portion of the 48HFP. I hope that everyone who attended the group screenings at the Carnegie and the best of at the Cinema De Lux enjoyed the events. Got to say that the screen at the Showcase Cinema DL was awesome. I'll be working on similar digs for next year. For more info you can go to my 48HFP site or the official page.

OK, I'm off for a while. I'll write more once I've been inside the Apple empire ...