Alumni Establish Creative Writing E-zine

Four ECU alumni, who graduated with English degrees, recently founded an online publication for creative writing called Polyphony Online.

Elton Shanaj, president of Polyphony, said that he has high hopes for the future of the publication.

"Our hopes are that we will make a lot of money and plan to sell, once the price is right, to the highest corporate bidder," he said. "The New Yorker, Playboy Magazine and Esquire have already shown their interest in us. However we have our eyes, hearts and wallets set on Rupert Murdoch of FOX Empire fame and eagerly expect his fatherly attention. We have already conceived a blog area to be hosted by Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh sometime in the near future."

Issues of the magazine are published on the Web site, http://www.polyphonyonline.org, every three months. Submissions of essays, fiction, poetry and creative photography are welcome. Content will also include blogs and entertainment reviews from regular contributors.

Me, me, me!

This week was pretty crazy. The "rollercoaster" bit from this video comes to mind:

My week didn't have anything to do with hormones, though, as far as I can tell.

Had a bit of a breakdown over the weekend and that reached the apex of angst on Monday. That was not fun at all. The gloomy weather had really gotten to me. By Tuesday I was starting to feel better, and by Wednesday I was in quite a good mood. Definitely think it had something to do with the sun actually coming out, plus counseling.

Seasonal affective disorder makes me feel like a crazy bitch. Maybe I am?

But I can feel the seasons starting to change already. There are whispers of spring that I am catching. It's a feeling I've had for a long time and yet I can't put it into words, but it happens around every equinox (although spring and autumn feel different). It's wonderful, and sometimes I wonder if other people feel it too and just don't talk about it. Regardless, I am looking forward to looking out my window at work and seeing the white balloons of Bradford pear trees blooming on the hills and valleys of Ada. My nerdiness makes me happy about upcoming ren fairs as well. :D

In other news, disbursement came in today. Yes! It seems early, or maybe my low expectations were just the way to go for getting a pleasant surprise. Still, I am going to treat myself to some sort of hair...thing. A cut and color sounds good. Then again, so does another sushi-filled trip to Norman.

Can't help but think that somewhere I am missing the point of blogging. I've had a LiveJournal since I was about 13 and so I'm used to just making them like normal journal entries. But whatever, it's my blog and I'll write what I want, even if it is trivial self-centered nonsense. Ha!

Apparently my blog URL is going to be posted somewhere at ECU or something like that. For those of you who found this through that link, I laugh at you for having no life. Hahahahaha!

I am tired and want to go back to doing nothing, so I will do just that.

Portraits of Ada - Delma Hall

Sitting at her desk in Danley Hall, Delma Hall, assistant vice president of academic affairs and director of fine arts at East Central University, smooths her hair briefly, perhaps subconsciously. She sits up straight in her chair, and there are no visible creases on her suit. Her laugh comes easily. Her demeanor is pleasant and charming, and she carries herself with both a gentle calm and a strong confidence. Her humble and inviting attitude are enough to put most anyone at ease. As a sort of adviser to the roughly 4,000 students at East Central, her professional yet agreeable presentation is invaluable.

Although Hall grew up on a farm in rural Oklahoma, and currently wears several hats at ECU in Ada, she has not lived a stationary life. After graduating college with an English degree and almost enough credits for a degree in speech/theater, she moved to Heidelberg, Germany, where she taught at a high school for American students. Around that time she toured Europe with her husband, indulging her passion for travel. She returned to the United States a few years later, and came to Ada to teach at East Central while also finishing a doctorate in theater.

Since beginning her career in teaching and leadership at the university level, she has fulfilled many roles. As a teacher she started part-time and moved up to department chair of communication and associate professor. Her teaching was put on hold after getting her current position in academic affairs. For six months she was dean of the school of business, and picked up the role of director of fine arts after the new Hallie Brown Ford Fine Arts Center was finished in 2009.

Despite her multiple positions at ECU over the years, Hall said that, first and foremost, she is a teacher.

“The classroom is always my favorite,” she said.

Many students would agree that Hall is a natural teacher. She received 13 reviews on RateMyProfessors.com, a Web site on which college students can post public evaluations of their professors. She received nearly perfect scores on clarity, helpfulness and overall quality.

“Everything about her is perfect,” one review stated. “Her look, her voice, her presence, you can't take your eyes off of her and she knows exactly how to impact every individual in the room. She taught me so much.”

As director of fine arts, Hall mentioned that her most desired expectations for the new school are mainly focused on getting students actively involved, pushing creativity to the maximum level.

“I would just like to see it full and overflowing all the time,” she said. “I'd like to see the programs grow, because the facility is so phenomenal. I want there to be activities going on there all the time … That building should be vibrating on its foundation at all times with creativity.”

Hall has had a lifelong love affair with the arts, she said. Despite her focus on theater, she made it clear that all arts are important to her.

“To me, the arts are breath,” she explained with much zeal apparent in her voice. “Creativity, to me, is such a part of who I am. I can't imagine that the world would be a very nice place if we didn't have the arts.” She mentioned that the most challenging part of her career so far is “finding time to do everything.”

“Being involved in theater, time is always the challenge when you're trying to get everything done,” she said.

Hall stated that she is progressively focused, looking forward to the future and evolution of the university, especially the fine arts program. On a personal level she also hopes to continue to explore her love of travel – perhaps when she finally does find time to do everything.

Best Dinner Ever

The best dinner I've ever eaten was probably at Gopuram, an Indian restaurant in Oklahoma City.

It was my senior year of high school. Most of my friends graduated a year before me, and some went on to college. My best friend, Jonnathon, was taking World Religion and Thought with Ken Hada, associate professor of English and languages. The class was taking a field trip to OKC to visit a Hindu temple and an Indian restaurant. Jonnathon invited me to go, and being interested in religion, I accepted.

We got to the restaurant after visiting a service at the beautiful temple that Saturday afternoon. The restaurant was richly decorated with tapestries and statuary. Walking in, my eyes took in the beauty of the restaurant and my nose took in the almost otherworldly smells coming from the open buffet. If for no other reason, at that point I was very glad I tagged along.

The names of the food were posted above the trays in the buffet, but that didn't help much except signal to me what included meat and what didn't. I was glad that many followers of Hinduism are vegetarians, like me, because it is often difficult to find meat-free dishes in Oklahoma restaurants.

I picked out some spinach with paneer cheese, fried, korma, and a few others dishes whose names I couldn't pronounce. This was the first time I had ever eaten Indian food so I wasn't quite sure what to do. I was offered mango lasi when I got back to the table, and my apprehension faded as the fruity, creamy flavor flooded my taste buds. It was delicious and I couldn't wait to try the food.

I started with the korma and instantly fell in love. There were spices and flavors I had never tasted before. It was utterly and gloriously alien, like manna from heaven. Indeed, I wondered if the food in heaven would be this good. The spinach and paneer was wonderful as well.

(I am being cut off by my professor. This may continue later.)

First personal post

This is a new blog for my Newpaper Reporting class. I will be writing three blogs a week: one personal, one assigned news story, and one ECU story. I'm guessing they don't have to be very long.

To start things off, my friend Jun and I went to Norman yesterday because we weren't completely broke for once in a few months. Yay for disbursement! At the end of the night we realized how stereotypically hipster we are. Our night out consisted of sushi, hookah, and tea and baked goods at a coffee shop across the street from the hookah bar. I had an amazing homemade bagel and a rather strong chai latte.

At the hookah bar we smoked two varieties over the course of a couple of hours. Fun fact: the coconut tobacco doesn't really taste like coconut. The owner, Moe, performed magic tricks for us and taught us how to do them. He also taught us how to blow smoke rings, which was fun because I've been wanting to learn since we've started our occasional hookah smokings. I'm really afraid that I'm going to ruin my lungs when Ada's hookah bar is up and running.

Also found out that my best friend is lying about stuff to his three closest friends (me, Dakota, and Travis) but not his casual friends. Buh? That soured my mood a little, but I was in a much better mood by the time we left. Still not happy about it, though. Of course we would never judge him or think badly of him; we've been friends since the sixth grade. So why lie about it to us? I wanted to be spiteful but I'm starting not to see the point of spite. Meh.