In the Rough - The Blog of Joel McDonald Jr.

I often refer to those left behind when we support a government that assumes that if the wealthy are doing well, all are doing well. Economic success doesn’t always trickle down. Watch this video, listen to the personal stories of hard working people who have been left behind. Imagine national leadership who is willing to fight for all people. We can decide to have a better future. We can change our nation for the better by changing the leadership in Washington. Watch this video and join with me in electing Barack Obama as President of the United States of America.

After two years and around $20,000 later, my associate’s degree diploma arrived yesterday from University of Phoenix. I’ve shared some of my experiences with UoP, and some have commented and shared theirs. Overall, my experience with the online school was not the best. Basically, I don’t believe the programs offered by Axia College of the University of Phoenix to be of much worth; certainly not worth the money required for their classes. While I can now hold a degree in my hand, I’m left feeling unaccomplished. This is perhaps the worst part. I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished anything at all. Yes, it’s just an associate’s degree; however, I do not believe that I would feel anymore accomplished if I pursued a bachelor’s from UoP. I think I would just feel all the more cheated. Cheated out of my time, and money.

Honestly, I learned little and was stretched even less. Toward the end of the associate’s program, while I was spending a majority of my time in a theatre, I was shocked at the decent grades I received on assignments that hardly met the criteria. I had to sacrifice some assignments for sake of time, but this reflected very little on my grades. I’m not saying that I didn’t do good work a majority of the time. My experience with being graded well on poor assignments is limited to the few assignments that I knowingly turned in without meeting all the requirements.

Now I’m left to wonder how I should go about actually accomplishing something in higher education. This requires that I decide on some sort of path of study. Heaven knows that my two years with UoP did little to aid me in that area. Yes, I want to go further and know that I’ll need to in order to be successful in something. The problem is that I don’t know what that something is and I fear locking myself into it at the expense of other things which could in fact be the best something for me.

A while back Dave Hobbs was talking out his being in Virginia Opera’s production of Il Trovatore as a supernumerary. He had coupons for half price tickets that we was willing to give me, but the only show I’d be able attend was in Richmond. I’d never been to Richmond, and my friend Sara needed a day off, so we decided to take the trip to visit the city and see the show.

We took Friday off and drove up to Richmond in the morning to spend the day there and see some of the sites. Upon arriving in Richmond, we faced the dilemma of figuring out where to park. For those unfamiliar with Richmond, it’s not a very inviting place to visit for those driving. It’s best to park and walk to wherever you are going. The problem is that there seems to be little opportunity to park in the city, as spaces were either taken, were metered (we didn’t have any change at that time), or were reserved. We ended up following signs beckoning us to public parking in a garage attached to the VCU medical campus, off the beaten trail. Once parked, we had a difficult time figuring out how to get out of the campus and into a part of the city that we thought had some good restaurants. We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, but never made our way back to that part of the city. We just couldn’t find it, and walked in circles for a bit. It was aggravating to say the least.

We eventually ended up finding Penny Lane Pub and decided to grab a bite there. The pub was very British and had a really cool atmosphere. I found the Halloween decorations to be a bit gaudy, but otherwise the decor was really interesting. I could easily imagine it being the very model of some place across the pond.

The service at Penny Lane was very friendly. There was an older gentleman there who was very welcoming. The menu was very much what I would expect to find in a British pub, complete with bangers, crisps, and chips. The menu included the explanation that their crisps were like our chips, and that their chips were like our fries. I got a good chuckle from that.

From what I could tell, the pub had a continuous stream of British bands playing. The Beatles were being played when we arrived.

The food was decent, and both Sara and I were a bit more civil once we had filled our stomachs and had a chance to decompress from the feeling of being lost in a strange place. Well, I guess it was more that a feeling. We really didn’t have a clue how to get anywhere!

After lunch, we walked around for a bit, snapping pictures of buildings and such. We walked around the Virginia Capitol Building, and by the Executive Mansion. We visited the lonely lady in the old bell tower on the grounds of the Capitol. She was very friendly and more than willing to give us brochures and highlight our tourist map.

The only place we actually got to visit that we had planned to visit was Agecroft Hall. The amazing thing about Agecroft is that it was originally built in England during the 15th century, and found it’s way to Virginia in the 1920’s. It’s an impressive example of Tudor architecture, and is now a museum where visitors can glimpse into 16th and 17th century life. The house was beautiful, and surrounded by impressive gardens.

We found the tour through the house to be a bit cheesy, with the guide being very dry in both humor and substance. The house is worth visiting, and the tour is worth enduring if only to venture throughout the house.

After running around Richmond and doing the Agecroft tour, we thought a little down time was needed. We checked into our room at the Holiday Inn Express (because we’re smart like that), and just chilled a bit. Turns out that we were a little too lax, and got pressed for time. We figured out that we didn’t have time to go out for dinner and get ready for the opera. After stressing about what we were going to do, Sara found a pamphlet in the room from a delivery service. We could call the service, order anything we wanted from a restaurant(or multiple restaurants) and have it delivered straight to our hotel room. It was brilliant! The service was very easy, and was on time. We dined on some Italian cuisine as we were getting ready for the opera.

Il Trovatore was the first opera that either Sara or I had seen, so it was certainly a very new experience. We had wonderful seats, but in retrospect I would have tried to sit a little further back so I wouldn’t need to do as much eye movement as was necessary to watch the show and read the supertitles. For the most part, I really enjoyed the show. I don’t know if I’ll make opera a regular experience, but I wouldn’t mind going again sometime. It was impressive to listen to such strong vocalists, and I was amazed at how well some acted and were able to convey emotion through their songs.

After the opera, Dave met Sara and me in the lobby and set out to the Tobacco Company. We had looked the place up on the web, and thought our formal wear wouldn’t clash with the atmosphere too much. Again, finding a place to park was a challenge, but once arriving, we enjoyed relaxing in what Sara called “the leopard print room” and enjoying a few drinks.

Overall, we had a nice trip. Parking really was our only major issue. If you’re going to Richmond, being some change for the meter. Or, even better, you can actually register with a service that will allow you to pay the meter by phone. Also, look for public parking garages new areas you are going to visit. I totally missed that there was a garage I could have used across the street from the theatre and I ended up parking about three blocks down.

If you want, you can check out the many pictures from the trip I have posted on Facebook. The public viewing links are here and here. I had to have two galleries, as I couldn’t fit everything into one.

While serving an LDS mission in Colorado Springs, CO, I had the wonderful opportunity to work with Chuck and Terri Sale at the LDS Employment Resource Center. It was a great experience, due in large part to being able to work with Chuck and Terri.

I dicovered just recently that Chuck is a fine art photographer. He has an impressive collection posted online that you really need to see. I am extremely envious of his talents and the opporunity he has to apply his talents to his surroundings. Colorado is an incredibly beautiful place; an amazing canvas for any photographer.

Chuck recently posted to his blog an announcement and description of a new venture that both he and his wife are starting. Here’s an excerpt from his post.

My wife, Teri, and I have long been a creative team. Teri is skilled in matte-cutting, custom mounting, and framing of fine art photography. She is also a master stain-glass worker. I am an oil painter, watercolorist, and fine art photographer.

We wanted to give gifts that were uniquely personal, gifts that would be cherished for a lifetime. Our still-life arrangements grew out of this desire.

Now we have made these custom art pieces available to the public. We create the still-life images; combine them to form the symbolic statement; and then matte, mount, and frame them. We sign the matte before mounting it behind glass in a sealed frame. Finally, we package and ship to the buyer.

I am extreemly impressed by the still-life arrangements Chuck has posted online, and would love to have their work hanging in my home and be able to give their work to others as an amazing gift. Check out what he’s posted online. I’m sure you’ll have no problem coming up with various ideas that they can turn into amazing works of art for yourself and others.