I reminded him that it’s a non-smoking campus now, and he said “yeah. i know, but they don’t enforce it.”

I said, “well, you never know.”, and he replied “yeah, I do know.  they don’t enforce it. hehe”

so much for a “fresh” campus.

oh yeah.  makes it even better when the guy is UA staff.

Coca-Cola and other soft drinks are now $1.50.  (They were $1 the day before).

Snickers are 85 cents (along with other snacks).

There’s gonna be some new sidewalks, landscaping, and TREES soon.

A couple of panoramas (click on the image for a larger version):

Shouldn’t University benefits be available to all employees, and not be discriminatory ?

What about childless employees who would like to volunteer for school activities, Big Brother/Big Sister, or similar agencies?

Would this be considered un-Constitutional ?

—

New Leave Available for Children’s Educational Activity.

Beginning January of each year, all full-time benefits eligible employees will receive 8 hours of leave for the purpose of participating in children’s educational activities. Any unused leave at the end of the calendar year is not subject to carry-over and unused leave will be lost. Additionally, unused Education Activity Leave is not compensable at retirement or termination.

Children are defined as any person enrolled in pre-kindergarten through grade 12 (preK-12) and who is related to the state employee as: natural child, adopted child, stepchild, foster child, grandchild, ward of the state employee, legal guardian or any other legal capacity where the employee is acting as a parent.

Educational activity is defined as: parent-teacher conferences, participation in school-sponsored tutoring, school-sponsored volunteer programs, field trips, classroom programs, academic competitions, and assisting with athletic, music or theater programs. Please note that this does not include attendance at sports activities.

This leave goes into effect July 1^st and will be available for your use after that date. For 2007 only, you will receive the full 8 hours to use between July 1st and December 31^st. After January 1^st, 2008 it will revert to 8 hours per calendar year as stated above.

But I sure like and appreciate well-done graffiti.

However, get the spelling right dude.

Found on the Stadium Drive Parking deck exterior, University of Arkansas Campus

The rock stars of environmental awareness come to the U of A campus — One Night Only!

Join us for a DYNAMIC discussion of sustainability by three exceptional speakers on the environment. You won’t want to miss this entertaining and informative presentation.

Adam Werbach
ActNow Productions
a fixture on lists of the most influential Americans under 30. …Rolling Stone
Elected president of national Sierra Club at 23
Respected Environmental Leader

Jib Ellison
Blu Skye Sustainability Consulting
Assist clients to create visions that have the power to transform markets
Build competitive advantage through sustainability
Extensive experience leading wilderness expeditions
Founded Project RAFT exchange program
Named Paddler of the Century by Paddler magazine

Hunter Lovins
Natural Capital Solutions, Inc.
Co-founder of Rocky Mountain Institute
Named a “Hero of the Planet” by Time magazine
Author of nine books and dozens of papers on
Natural Capitalism, globalization, energy

Presented by the University of Arkansas Center for Applied Sustainability

I knew it was coming, but after Googling his name and “arkansas”, I finally found some little bitty text on a single UA  page.

If you’re not familiar with Showalter, he was a writer and actor on “The State”, “Stella”, Wet Hot American Summer, and The Baxter.   (imdb link)

He’s great, and I’m excited about the show.  Almost as excited as when Billy West (the voice of Ren and Stimpy) talked on campus.  (We won’t even discuss Carrot Top at RedEye years ago).

The  potential of the “Green Space” in the middle of the quad  is promising.  Right now, it’s dirt, red clay, and a solitary mighty tree – the one that they didn’t cut down.  (I’m reminded of the Kohl’s building and parking lot fiasco).

The best thing about it is the Arsaga’s Coffeeshop in the Law Library (go up the spiral stairs on the bottom floor, take a right, go through the Library).  No more RZ’s unless you really crave it !

My coffee is gone.

The full pound of Espresso beans brought back from Vienna.

Don’t fuck with my coffee, yo.

It was sitting next to my desk when I left work around 5:45pm yesterday, in a handled brown paper IGA grocery bag.

But it was gone this morning.  Along with whatever else was in that bag, I can’t even remember now.

I check the dumpster next to the building, it’s not in there.

I call the FAMA Service Center, and get passed to the custodial day supervisor, who asks if I looked in the other dumpster.  He said he’d leave a note for our building’s custodian.  But I wasn’t taken very seriously.

This isn’t the first time we’ve had problems like this.  Last year, a co-worker came in to find her organized stacks of documents were gone.  Luckily, they were found in the dumpster.

They had a problem awhile back with food mysteriously disappearing from offices and refrigerators in our main office.

And last week, a mini-Snickers bar that I was given on Valentines day mysteriously disappeared from my desk overnight.

Now I’m pissed.  Really pissed off.  In the eleven years I’ve worked here, I’ve never locked my office door.  Times are changing.

One of the major changes that was noticed was the substitution of real cutlery and plates with plastic equivalents.  Hiring someone to wash dishes costs alot more than plasticware and styrofoam, apparently.  However, what is the cost to the environment ?

This week, Chartwells in the Arkansas Union has gone a step further.  Previously, if you wanted water, you took a small paper Coca-Cola branded cup, and used it for water.  Now, if you do that, you’ll get charged for the paper cup.

However, you can now have a 20 ounce STYROFOAM cup for free for your water.

I didn’t realize this, and I filled up a paper cup like I have been for years, and then got scolded by a cafeteria lady.  I asked “So, do I need to dump out this water into a styrofoam cup?”.  Her reply, was yes.  Unless you want to be charged for the cup.

So, in addition to using a styrofoam cup for my water, I also wasted a paper cup.

Chartwells (and the University of Arkansas), stop this insanity !