I finished Paul's recommendation letter for his application for a faculty position. Thank you for asking me Paul. I hope this helps.

M@TT

Dr. Barbara Irwin
Canisius College
Lyons Hall
2000 Main Street
Buffalo, NY 14208

Dear Dr. Irwin,

It is with pleasure and confidence that I submit a recommendation for Paul Visco. I have known Mr. Visco for three years. Two years of which I was a student at Canisius College studying under the Communication Department.

Paul is hands-down one of the most creative and insightful people I have the pleasure of knowing. I have watched since its inception, a virtual community created by Paul blossom from a small few member virtual discussion board into a fully interactive virtual community called Elmwoodstrip.com.

I believe Elmwoodstrip.com speaks volumes of Paul's dedication, intuition, and creativity. He has a fundamental understanding of the philosophy and development of technology, particularly its effects on the human population (i.e. students).

As a professor, I noted Paul to be extremely patient. He has a thorough understanding of technology and its best utilization as a learning tool. As an instructor of DMA 201, Paul instilled in his students, including myself, the fundamental skill sets of the programs we were presented with. Walking into the class knowledgeable in most of the programs we were learning, I found Paul to easily cater to my more advanced learning pace while giving first time students time to explore and learn the programs at their own pace. Paul performs the delicate act of balancing learning speeds with ease and confidence.

Creativity is a valuable tool. Paul Visco has enough for two lifetimes. He has tirelessly invested his personal time in the development of Elmwoodstrip.com. A spectacular example of Paul's computer-imaging skills is a 3D interactive model Paul created a few years ago of the environment around his apartment on Elmwood Ave. This 3D model allowed the user to navigate around a virtual makeup of Paul's immediate neighborhood and living quarters. It is one of the most fascinating things I have seen.

As long as I've known Paul, he has never been complacent. He is continually experimenting with technology, teaching himself new things and always pushing the envelope.

Paul Visco is a superior match for your position. Canisius College has strived to bring its students the most intelligent and creative faculty to influence them and help them become the leaders of tomorrow. Paul's skills and teaching abilities have been proven through his employment at Canisius for the past five years. I believe him to be a superior instructor and friend and strongly support an evaluation of his work for this position.




Sincerely,

Matthew Grasela
Alumnus, Canisius College
Class of 2004

I don't do complaints. Blah.

It was muuudddyyyyyy!

I went to Letchworth today with Jeff. What a great day! It was so warm and quiet.If you are looking for a fun time now that its warmer, I recommend the drive out there. Its still a little muddy, but we had a good time.

I fell asleep at 9pm last night and woke up at 7am. Now I'm super-tired and want to go to bed again.

Anyone going to Trimania tonight? I hope its fun.

Pushing aside Crown and Coke, I've discovered the even-better joy of Jack and Coke.

Happy Birthday Matthew!

The first time I bought an iPod, I got the 20 gig model and an armband to go with it. The original plan was that I would be able to run with it. I get it home, load the songs onto it, throw it in the arm band and put the arm band on my arm. It was really awkward to use the controls to switch songs, and I kept wanting to look at the screen when I was moving. I wound up taking it back less than three hours later.

Jeff gets back from his trip and has an iPod Shuffle waiting for me :oD So far so good. Its a lot lighter and fits on my arm better. Bonus was that I didn't know it held files until I read the manual.


balls out fun :oP

(e:ajay) geocaching looks like crazy fun!

After eating dinner and coming back up here and reading my naked journal entry, I feel like I should redirect the question to (e:paul).

Would it be so terrible if someone posted a naked picture of themselves on here?

I'm not looking for a definitive answer; just something to chew on. I see no difference in a naked user pict and the pictures of where we view the (e:strip).

To post a series of naked pictures? Not erotic by any means but just a normal picture but without any clothes.

Think about it. We are all naked, we were born naked. I'm really naked under my clothing right this moment.

So why cringe and immediately think it would be dirty. I'm clean I showered twice today.

haha

n a k e d

Today I realized how easy it is to boss people around. I've been doing it my whole life. Almost everybody takes the shit I spew out as the god-given truth. AND NO ONE EVER ASKS ANY QUESTIONS. At work, with friends, with the exception of some of my family, no one really challenges my ideas.

Yesterday at work I was thinking about Thursday when the doctor I work for was seeing patients. Not one single patient questioned the doctor. No one asked if something else could be done, not even the homeopathic girl who told me initially that she didn't believe in prescription medication and wouldn't take it if prescribed. She walked out of there with four prescriptions.

There were a couple of other patients who were so intimidated by the office they would have believed me if I told them their ears were going to fall off.

Is it possible that we have gotten that lazy that we can't think for ourselves? Or is it just me and I've surrounded myself with wimps?

I think my friends are most certainly not wimps and that most of the patients I see at work are moderately intelligent people but as of late no one seems to want to buck the trend. What happened to the high road? I like the high road.

Change is great. Pushing limits is awesome. Asking questions lead to nothing except new knowledge. America's been settling into mediocre for a long time now and I'm getting scared.