Life in the key of E flat minor

It’s here. Tonight is the opening ceremonies of the London Summer Olympics 2012. I couldn’t sleep last night; it was like Christmas Eve. John Williams’ score is in my head – you know it  – Olympic Fanfare and Theme based on Leo Arnaud's “Bugler's Dream:” Bum bum bum bum-da-bum bum bum bum & doot-doot-doot-doot doo doo. We will watch the United Kingdom’s response to China’s jaw-dropping opening. How will it start? The Queen in her jubilee year will open it but to what fanfare? Who will light the cauldron? What ancient rock stars will perform? Will non-Olympian, but rugby-hero and anti-bullying-advocate Ben Cohen be involved? (I think I’m only of handful who are thinking about Ben versus Beckham at the games.) Starting 10 days out, I tweeted my favorite Olympic Moments of all time. For the sake of clarity, I’m repeating them here (but switching out the Winter Olympics moments for other Summer memories) for my personal top ten significant Summer Olympics moments. ...

It's been a while since I posted on my own blog, but here is an entry that was originally posted on Frankly Penn (the University of Pennsylvania Alumni blog) on June 27, 2012. I have made minor edits. For those who don't know my day job, I work in Alumni Relations. Not everyone understands what I do on a daily basis. Baker Library, quintessential Dartmouth Alumni relations professionals advance the mission of their institutions and serve and support its alumni - graduates of an educational institution - reflecting the values of the institution. We reinforce the principles of honesty, integrity, and trust, which form the basis for long-term relationships and engagement with the school. For the majority of us, we manage and direct the work of alumni volunteers who are promoting the image of the College or University to their school peers. Annually, the Alumni Relations groups of the 8 Ivy League Universities as well as MIT and Stanford gather for the Ivy Plus Alum...

I am a little bit of a vexillogist . The current naval jack is apocryphally based on the first Union Jack of the United States . Reintroduced in September 11, 2002 on all navy ships in support of the War on Terrorism, the USS Constitution has been flying this jack since the 1980 as the ship's privilege since she is the oldest active ship in the navy. This photo comes from the deck of Old Ironsides. In a honor of our Independence Day, I posted this photo on facebook.  I took it while I was in Boston this April for the Marathon. However, the picture of the naval jack is altered.  The wind was blowing in the opposition direction and I actually got the text in reverse.  I didn't think that anyone would mind if I flipped the photo in order to show off the text originally from the Gadsden flag . So below I posted the original photo, untouched. Happy Independence Day.