UW-Stevens Point is on the facebook and picking up speed! Brace yourself, Kristen, this competition is about to hit warp speed. (Thanks, Beeks!) Real Friends: 82. Society of Slightly Less Than Real Profiles: 50.

Facebook me!

David, thanks for the gesture, but I really don’t know if “Nick Crawford Is a Cyborg” is really a group I want to join! Is this because I turned the Excel spreadsheet into a PDF file?

The group description:

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Culture

“Culture consists of systems
of values, attitudes, beliefs, and behavioral meanings that are shared
by members of a social group (society) and that are learned from
previous generations.” – “Essentials of International Management: A Cross-Cultural Perspective” by David C. Thomas

For those of you who don’t know, I’m studying business at UW-Milwaukee
in their MBA program. Looking to graduate in May, I opted for the
Leadership Track since the courses were available, including the
elective, Managing and Negotiating Across Cultures. By far, this is my
favorite class.The instructor was born in Texas, raised in Mexico, and
educated in Belgium. (Tall, dark, and very handsome, dark curly Latino
hair, with a decent Spanish accent – help with the mental picture?)
When he teaches, unlike many of my other classes, he shoots high and
expects you to keep up. Of course, I love this. I love history and
culture, traveling and learning, and above all, being challenged.

Like many of my classes, almost half the class is of foreign birth -
four from Germany, three from Taiwan, one from India, and one from
South Korea. Naturally, this makes for a broad set of perspectives
already plus the strong interest that the other US-born students have
in other countries and cultures. Whoa. Catch myself there. Did you
notice that? I’m tying countries together with culture. I did when I
described the make-up of my classmates. In fact, I do this all the
time. We as Americans do this all the time but also with race.

It seems perfectly normal to us, and I don’t believe that there is
anything wrong at all with making that correlation, but I think our own
interactions would be improved if we considered what other aspects make
up culture. Going back to the institutional definition I started with,
culture is much more than a place of birth or color of skin. Actually,
those have very little to do with it. Think of language. Interesting
topic because in the past, it was assumed culture molded the language.
Today, the growing belief is that language frames the culture as the
vehicle of communication. To me, it’s a hybrid as the language is
strongly influenced by the emerging culture (years ago!) and eventually
the language begins to be a defining frame of reference for the culture.

Germans are known for technical expertise – engineering, heavy
industry, etc. – and for a huge vocabulary because words get merged to
be more specific. Did they excel in machining because they had a
language that enabled them to do so? Of course not! Did the language
grow to become a more technical language versus the flowery French
language? Yes… And German is commonly used in the world for technical
documents in industry. Certainly not French! It seems logical that both
sides influence each other as language embeds itself into a culture. As
a result, we see francophone Canadians
fiercely protective of the use of French in Quebec, or the “rude”
French who insist you at least try speaking French before they offer to
use English with you. These people instinctively see that their
language is their culture.

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Doggone right.

I keep staying awake all night… and not eating much. The not eating
part is fine because I’m more comfortable feeling a little hungry than
full. Hey! Maybe that’s why I’m so skinny. Actually. My ribs are showing up again. Still building muscle mass with my very physical job.

So I work all day from about 8 to 5. School until 8. Talk to friends
until 10 or 12. At this point I realize how much homework and office
work I have and begin plodding along until…whoops, my co-worker is
here at 6am ready to go out all over again! Pray for me and the company
- we have 3 days left to our year end and lots of revenue to post!

Chris, though he doesn’t read this site, took this picture.

Two very different links.

A slideshow of Hurricane Katrina pictures from New Orleans that was e-mailed to me. 3.5mb

A website that my group created tonight in class. A bunch of bologna.

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 These flies keep buzzing around, and I now have a pile of 5,
make that 6, dead ones. There’s a certain satisfaction in taking out a
fly with a solid clap.

Ah, the famous credit card prank.
Lately, I’ve enjoyed signing my name “Please Check ID” since the swoops
line up well with my name. And ID? Um, it’s like MD for tree people.

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Dear friends, I need your help. I think I know what I’m supposed to do tonight:
  1. Confess my deeply seated and profound affection for Bono.
  2. Wave a sign that expresses my desire to carry his babies.
  3. Scream at the top of my lungs during the quietest part of the set.

What else? Am I missing anything?

Dashboard Confessional is opening for U2 on Sunday. I am vindicated. Kanye West is opening in December – couldn’t they have both??

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I’m gonna write until I get interrupted. I realize that day-to-day
topics always are the least interesting… It’s another transition
point here in life. Here I am starting another year of college for the
sixth time with an entirely different perspective than I had going into
every year before this. I wish more strongly than the last time that I
had my own house. That I had less debt to live with. (need three points
for a series…um….) That I was further along growing up than I had
hoped I would be.

On the positive side, I’m glad that I’ll have a master’s degree in 8
months. My summer went very well, and there’s a great person to share
it with. My friendships over the summer grew as well, setting me up for
a much brighter semester than the last when I was returning to a school
after having spent 3 years at UW-Stevens Point. I see my spiritual life
growing in some aspects, but how many years have I also tread water?
God knows…He’s also been the most stable relationship ever… How
does God….wait… why does God always stay so close? I am perpetually
amazed at how the moment I close my eyes, I feel the love so
immediately and so deeply like there was never a moment away… so real.

My perspective keeps changing. I caught myself today. At our company
picnic, we had a great time playing volleyball and yelling at each
other. Haha…the Spanish/English conversations, cheers and jeers kept
my brain running! As we were leaving with the rain coming, I couldn’t
help but compare: the guys with spouses and familes walking back to
their minivans (though I despise them) with kids running around versus
those of us single guys kicking our feet back to our own cars and
trucks. My married co-worker John told me on Friday after whining about
all the downsides of marriage, “You know Nick, when you get old, you
marry for companionship.” Sure, I’m not old, but maybe some day I will
be. Now, sure, it’s easy to be around tons of people, but in a decade,
it probably would be nice to come home and not be alone.

Which leads to…my Friday night alone! I can have fun alone at concerts. But I wasn’t thinking I’d be alone! Here I thought three people would be out there with me to see Paul and Storm,
but it was just me with 27 other people! The concert was hilarious, and
I kept thinking the whole time about how some of my friends would have
loved it… Oh well. It happens. I hope I get to hear a violin concert
from my little sisters tonight! Gotta go – Victoria’s party is starting
on Crawford time!

Pics by Brian Schmid, the owner of the first digital camera I ever saw. Sony Mavica with a built-in floppy disk drive.

I have a cool job. How often does someone call up saying, “Nick, can you help clearing a tree out of the road? It’s blocking State State.” Oh, at 9:30p. Matt told me that he was headed to City on a Hill, a ministry on the Near West side of Milwaukee (is that accurate, Nikki?), with a chainsaw and needed a truck. So I grabbed the newest truck (of course) and biggest chipper we have (of course) and got there at 10p, rolled past the police blocking the road off and rolled into position.

Matt and I have done tree work together before, so we got to cutting and chipping like good buddies…just in the dark this time. The tree only lost one branch – you can see how big that branch was! It demolished the wrought iron fence and sprawled across 3 lanes. In no time, we were pumping out 116 decibels (rock concert: 110 db) with the chipper. Can you tell I love this stuff?? Plus I like throwing huge wood around. The chipper did fine chomping through 16″ logs.

Interestingly, Esther and I had looked at some tree work to do there not even a week before this happened. She’s the expert, really. The story behind the location is pretty amazing. The hospital that used to occupy the city-block sized campus donated it to a couple groups, and City on a Hill received a 350,000 square foot portion for their ministry. Think of that! That’s 8 acres of building space!

They use it “to provide adult education, job training and other services to area residents” in a down-to-earth way. They’ve also got a Royal Rangers boys program there too and that’s my connection – Matt and I have both graduated from their Academy and teach camps now.

Ok, ok…I’ve now been awake for 40 hours here, and it’s time for bed. The storm work, the classes, and the ever-hyperactive social life really gets in the way of sleep. This weekend’s plans:

• Friday: Paul and Storm at Shank Hall – I’ll spot you a ticket! Anyone? Here’s a sample MP3. It’s even better live!
  
  
• Saturday: Victoria Zoe’s 9th birthday party (I bought her a scrapbook, stickers, and stationery)
  
• Sunday: a little known band called…shoot…what’s it called? Uptoo? No… I think it’s called  U2 . Maybe you’ve heard of it. At the Bradley Center with my other friend Matt.

 

It’s Official!
Yes, Esther officially visited me.

Since she’s planning on applying to
Marquette for grad school, the two of us waltzed around the campus for
a bit while she complained about how hot it is in Milwaukee. Favorite
memory of the campus? We’re chilling out at the little chapel in the
academic core when a wedding party starts strolling by us. The groom?
Carrying a Miller Lite no less. And the groomsman. And every
bridesmaid. With cigarettes to boot! It was a great cultural experience
for the Oregonian.

That night I took her to the lakefront where we walked out on Government Pier. Brent and I strolled on this pier back in August.
It was a little different this time with a girl in hand. Past the
fishermen with their lanterns. Past the passed out. But not all the way
to the end due to a making out couple. We talked for a while, and I
asked Esther to be my girlfriend. She paused for 20 minutes. She says
it was a dramatic pause. I say she was being dramatic. In any event,
she asked if I was serious (I had said “in all seriousness…”). I was
serious, and I am now her boyfriend. OKAY. *breathes* Is that what you were waiting for?

For
you romantic types (so yeah I am), we had a city skyline backdrop with
fireworks and all. My fireworks people were a little slow on the
timing, but they pulled through as you can see in the picture.
Hopefully you can see our silhouette.

The next morning, we made it to Church in the City
with the C-Haus and Chi Alpha gangs. The message was good, the music
was…. Well, we had lots to talk about. Good thing too, we had a long
drive ahead of us to Chicago. But first! Another stop at the lake for a
photo-op. This Esther girl was standing on a huge concrete block so we
could be in the same frame.

Wanna
hear something funny? I thought this was funny… Chris’s fiance Cassie
took some of her out-of-state classmates to Chicago for a weekend, and
they rolled past Lake Michigan at one point. A classmate of hers from
the West Coast had told her all along that Cassie really needs to see the ocean, she really needs to the ocean cuz it’s sooo big…
Then her classmate sees Lake Michigan and says, “You can’t see the
other side! Oh wow!” DUH, I tell Esther. Can you imagine? Who thinks
you can see to the other side?! Seriously, the Great Lakes are the
biggest freshwater lakes in the world. …..she confided that she had never realized you can’t see across Lake Michigan…I promised not to tell anyone else, so shhhhhhh

So back in action. We hit the road and made it to the University of Chicago. We actually drove past the spots where I had met Carolyn and Shari this summer,
too! This was my first time to the campus, and it….is…..beautiful!
The buildings feel prestigious, and the landscape? A+ That’s saying
something.

I told Esther that wherever she goes to school, I’ll
visit her, including England, her top choice. Actually, that would be
fun…. But you know, Chicago’s looking good too if you ask me. So is
the girl with me in the picture. Snapped this one for the memory.

You know, looking at these pictures, I really need to shave my face or get some real facial hair going on…

I
kept on having this weird looks in pictures since I would end up
wondering if I was pointing it in the right direction or not and forget
to smile. Plus, the batteries were threatening to die at any moment.

Oh,
that’s right, the narrative. So I gave her a driving tour of downtown
Chicago and enjoyed watching her jaw drop over the buildings and the
flurry of activity into the night. If you asked her, she would probably
first tell you about the Muslims she saw! She was so excited, I can’t
even explain it. The girl was jumping up and down when we saw a mosque
just down the road from the University of Chicago. fyi…she has a
strong interest in the subject….like thinking of it for grad school,
yeah….

To
top off the evening, and this entry, we walked Navy Pier and soaked in
some live music, more photo-ops by the ferris wheel and at the bottom
of this entry, the Chicago skyline.

So yeah, I like Esther. She rocks my socks off.

Credits: Thanks be to God. The short long story is that Vic
is a Chi Alpha campus pastor in Portland, Oregon and a good friend of
Esther’s who was getting the word out about Esther’s site by leaving comments on people’s sites, including mine. He found me through Earl’s
site which I heard about at SALT in January. I checked out Esther’s
site (which I had seen before), then we exchanged comments (me then her). It really got going here
where we both got mad at each other and decided to see if the other
would come to their senses. I think we’re still waiting and watching.

 

Say hi to Rachel who
just moved to Oregon. We were in Chi Alpha here in Wisconsin, and
she has just moved back out to Oregon where she’s starting grad school
next fall. Where’s my Oregon crew?

I was stung 29 times by yellow jackets today. Just stepped on their
home, that’s all. You’d think they would be afraid of my running
chainsaw, but a large group of them picked out my lower back and upper
butt cheeks for prime stinging territory. Benadryl and a cold pack
later, I’m feeling fine.

Tonight I leave to go canoeing for a boy’s ministry outreach this
weekend for the second year. Definitely going to carpool with gas at
$3.25/gallon and some stations with only premium for much more. Wish me
the best! I’m praying for some
good opportunities to be both a role model and helping
hand…..reaching out…..touching me…..touching you……