A Staff Perspective on Graduation

Posted by On Filed under Pause for Reflection
A Staff Perspective on Graduation

On May 5th, I attended the Vermont Technical College Commencement. It being my first at Vermont Tech, there was a natural charge, but it got me to thinking about all of the official college events I’ve been to over the nine years I’ve been in higher education.

When I worked at Norwich University, there was Convocation, Commencement, all kinds of celebratory events and weekly parades, due to NU being a military college. (I do miss the parades.) When I worked at Goddard College, I attended more than 30 opening sessions and 30 graduations, since nearly each program had its own residency. At Vermont Tech, I’m getting back into the routine of a residential campus and the traditional touch points of an academic year.

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Movie Review: Albert Nobbs

Posted by On Filed under Movie Reviews
Movie Review: Albert Nobbs

I hate to write this, but Albert Nobbs was a flop. Every bit of it: plot, characters, acting, you name it.

First and foremost, Glenn Close played Glenn Close in this movie. I didn’t see a character, a man or even a woman masquerading as a man, the entire point of the film. I saw Glenn Close on screen, with faint hints of Sarah Cooper, Close’s character from The Big Chill. The voice was clearly a woman’s/faux-man’s voice and couldn’t fool anybody. Close’s hair was good, in only that the short cut really looked like her own hair, which it wasn’t. But Close’s feminine lips, eyes and smile lines thoroughly overshadowed the Nobbs character.

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Recommendation from Ellen Hoil, VP at Nutritional Therapeutics

Posted by On Filed under Doing Business Differently, Marketing
Recommendation from Ellen Hoil, VP at Nutritional Therapeutics

“The work we did with Michelle was fantastic. She set up our social media while teaching our staff how to maintain it, and continues to help us better our sites and reach. Overall her work has been more than exemplary.”

Ellen Hoil

Vice President

Nutritional Therapeutics

Learn more about the freelance marketing services I offer.

Recommendation from Ellen Hoil

Movie Review: Iron Lady

Posted by On Filed under Movie Reviews
Movie Review: Iron Lady

I’ll really go see anything with Merryl Streep in it these days. She’s her own indomitable iron lady on the silver screen, taking on characters and roles that, once she touches them, I couldn’t imagine anyone else even trying. Her latest film, Iron Lady, has her portraying British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

I read mixed reviews of the film and wasn’t sure what I was in for with this 105 minute movie, but I was not disappointed. The film is set in the supposed present, with a Thatcher that totters, is still speaking to her dead husband and who is flashing back on a lifetime of intense politics juxtaposed, unfortunately, with her current life indoors under close supervision of family, caretakers and doctors.

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Movie Review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Posted by On Filed under Movie Reviews
Movie Review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Oskar Shell is a precocious boy who lost his father in the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks. But to find the lock to a discovered key his father left behind, Oskar must overcome his anxieties about trains, planes, buses, bridges, loud noises, tall buildings and strangers.

Thomas Horn stars as Oskar, the boy compelled to travel all over New York City to salvage some connection to his dead father, played by Tom Hanks, while growing distant from his mother, played by Sandra Bullock, and sometimes in the company of an odd, silent older man, played wonderfully by Max von Sydow.

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