It’s official…I sold a photograph to the National Geographic Society. In 2006, I took several photographs of Crater Lake and stitched them into a panoramic photo. I had no idea that my photograph would be displayed on thousands of copies on a map!

My photo will be featured on the Central Cascades Geotourism MapGuide.

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I took the StrengthsQuest yesterday. I think that my results are spot on. What do you think?

StrengthsQuest gives students and educators the opportunity to develop strengths by building on their greatest talents — the way in which they most naturally think, feel, and behave as unique individuals.

Here are my StrengthsQuest results:

STRATEGIC
People who are especially talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

IDEATION
People who are especially talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.

MAXIMIZER
People who are especially talented in the Maximizer theme focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence. They seek to transform something strong into something superb.

INDIVIDUALIZATION
People who are especially talented in the Individualization theme are intrigued with the unique qualities of each person. They have a gift for figuring out how people who are different can work together productively.

INTELLECTION
People who are especially talented in the Intellection theme are characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions.

Lately, I have received several emails asking me about my experiences as a higher education administrator and regarding my experiences as someone who has graduated from a college student services administration graduate program. I decided to attempt to answer all of them in a giant college student services / higher education administrator, question/answer blog post. The questions were sent to me via email, Twitter and Facebook. I’ve taken out the identifying bits of info and hopefully, some of my answers will be useful to folks who are thinking about working in higher education or pursuing a graduate degree in higher education administration / college student services…

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My blog has been nominated to be included in the BlogHighEd network. This higher ed blogging network is jam packed with a lot of webmasters, marketers, counselors, vendors, and consultants.

It would be wonderful if you could take a couple seconds and vote for my higher education blog posts at:

http://www.bloghighed.org/vote/

My higher education posts can be found at:
http://ericstoller.com/blog/tag/higher-education/

If my site gets enough votes, it will be the only BlogHighEd blog that is authored by an Academic Advisor. Many thanks to all those that have already voted. I really appreciate it.

Cheers!
~Eric

Advisor Creates Blog About Flood

Damage from this summer’s flooding in Iowa extended all the way to Oregon State.

Eric Stoller, an academic advisor at OSU, is from Columbus Junction, Iowa; a town of about 2,000 people that was besieged by water in June when the Iowa and Cedar Rivers overran their banks.

“The only way I could do something to help was to put information up on my blog,” Stoller said.

The transplanted Iowan is quite tech savvy. In a previous job, he worked as a Web consultant and he also built the OSU Admissions department’s blog. He started his personal blog in 2004, mostly as a way to publish his academic work and social justice views. In June, Stoller began posting flood photos and links to Southeast Iowa flooding news stories.

I’ve had numerous friends and family members who have unsubscribed or even flat out refused to read my blog. The reason given was usually that they didn’t agree with me. Some folks have even told me that they are afraid that if they read my blog that our friendship will cease to function/exist. My posts were too radical. Too many posts on social justice, higher education and technology.

I was thinking about how my blog is, not always, but sometimes, an insightful window into who I am. My writing lets you know who I am. By saying to me that you don’t want to read my blog because of what I write about, are you also saying that you don’t really want to know who I am? The complete me is something that you resist knowing? I am okay if you don’t want to read because you think my blog isn’t very good or that you disagree with my thoughts. I think most bloggers are okay with that.

I remember when my mom and my brother unsubscribed from my blog’s automatic email function. I was okay with them not agreeing with my posts, but I was concerned that they stopped reading. My brother might be reading via RSS. However, I am fairly certain that my mom just stopped reading. It felt like they didn’t want to know who I am. They wanted an incomplete me. A more palatable me.

I place who I am on this blog. If you refuse to read my blog, it feels like you really don’t want to know me. Who I am. Please don’t read if you don’t want to, but don’t tell me that you don’t read in order to maintain some sort of false sense of me.

If Stewart Foss, the proprietor of eduStyle - inspiration for campus web designers, ever purchased monogrammed [ES] eduStyle towels, I could easily borrow them. In lieu of towels, Stewart sent me something that I am even more fond of. A custom, one of a kind, eduStyle t-shirt. The front proudly displays the eduStyle logo while the back outs me as eduStyle’s “most awesome user.” The community at eduStyle continues to grow and I thoroughly enjoy being one of the many users on the site.

I didn’t monitor my web stats in 2004 (shocker!), but here’s a snapshot of how my little blogging experiment has grown from 2005 to 2008:

My blog was featured in a news story in the local Corvallis newspaper, the Gazette Times: “Former Iowan blogs back to his flooded homeland“.

I have 3 copies of the print edition, per my mom’s request, that I need to mail back to Iowa.

When I purchased them the cashier asked if I was in the paper. I said yes and she rolled her eyes .

While he’s lived in Corvallis for nearly four years, Eric Stoller will always identify himself as an Iowan.

He spent more than 20 years living in Iowa, and has close ties to his family in Columbus Junction. So when reports of massive flooding of his home state began appearing on the news, he paid close attention to the water’s progress. When it hit his hometown, he started blogging.

“I was in Oregon, and (so) blogging seemed like the only thing that I could do,” Stoller said. “It was cathartic. I quickly went through several (Internet) searches for information about Southeast Iowa flooding.”

This is my 500th blog post. I’ve been blogging for almost 4 years now. Time flies when you’re blogging. I never thought I would last this long. I’ve had a few breaks here and there. It takes a lot of juice to keep blogging on a regular basis. The blogosphere and the brickosphere require a lot of energy. Thankfully, I am blessed with a wonderful partner, Wendy, who supports her techie-social-justice-oriented-Iowan/Oregonian partner’s blogging endeavors! Te amo muchisimo!

The most rewarding aspect of blogging is the community that I have grown to know and love. Brownfemipower, Kevin, Vegankid, Kortney, Kai, Jenn, and Rachel are all bloggers that I connected with during my initial dips into the blogging pool — people who I have never met in person (hopefully someday!) that I admire and respect. It is the blogging community that makes blogging so special to me.*

I appreciate all of my friends, colleagues and family members who continue to read my posts and provide spectacular comments. I have learned a lot from your shared wisdom. Thanks for visiting!

*I want to also acknowledge the following bloggers as they too have helped me grow as a fellow member of the blogosphere:

• Michael Faris
• Nezua
• Devious Diva
• Joseph Orosco
• Racialicious
• The Angry Black Woman
• Belledame
• Vox