Various

On this day in 1954 Godzilla first appeared on the screen in the first of 40 movies. I remember as a kid loving those movies... at least the ones I saw. Those were definitely simpler days in terms of special effects, and I always wondered what the real voices of the Japanese actors sounded like.

Virginia is at Sac State this weekend for the final sessions of her last Crime Analyst certification course. It's taken about a year and a half, but she's enjoyed the courses and has learned a lot. It'll be interesting to see how her role at the PD changes over the coming months. Monday morning I'll have her at the airport early to catch a 6:00 flight to Orange County for a two-week school on a software package the PD is considering. There'll be an officer as well (driving down Sunday), so they'll come back via I-5. On the middle weekend she plans to spend some time with Jeremy and Amber.

I was reading in Readers Digest that one of the latest things is for alums of some colleges and universities to have their ashes placed in urns in specially built memorials on campus, probably with a hefty donation as well. I guess when some people say they're forever a (insert mascot), they really can be now. The article said Notre Dame has been doing this for a while, and one of the other schools mentioned is Hendrix College. When I was running at Harding we competed against Hendrix, and they had a rep for being a top academic school. Years later as a school counselor, I remember sitting in on sessions with college reps who were "selling" the merits of their schools to these men and women who would be keeping their students informed. All the other schools, including Harding and the U of A, pretty much highlighted all the reasons why students should choose their school. The Hendrix rep didn't talk as long as the others, and simply said something like, "Our application deadline is (insert date). If you want your students to have a shot, tell them not to miss the deadline." Wow!! I was impressed. He could say that because 1) Hendrix is a small school and accepts only a limited number of students, and 2) it had (maybe still does) the rep as the best academic school in the state, drawing top students from other states as well. I guess this latest move allows them to keep their alums close and helps the alums to urn graduate credit. :-)