In this political season, an interesting new work is being presented at Dillard University, that explores the degree to which we allow ourselves to be defined by and have our lives affected by political ideologies and beliefs.

In The Zeitgeist Chronicles, playwright Stephen Montagne tackles a wide range of ideas and arguments but in this workshop production, more refinement of those ideas is necessary before this work is ready to be further shopped around.

As we are barely a month away from the presidential election, The Zeitgeist Chronicles revisits the so-called Hope and Change election of 2008, viewing it through the eyes of several sets of characters. With a large cast, the storylines cross a variety of racial, socio-economic, political, religious and generational points of view.

Using that election campaign as the backdrop, Montagne creates a fairly compelling group of characters. At the center is a New Orleans family watching its ill and aging patriarch still struggling to survive several years after losing his home and business in Hurricane Katrina. Others include a Southern-born liberal reporter and staunch Hillary Clinton supporter who is interviewing a dying relative, a reformed racist now supporting Barack Obama; a 25-year-old Mormon standup comedian and his Rat Pack era mentor, an atheist now living in a retirement home.

While the play is aiming for a relevancy today, Montagnes framing of his story with the last campaign primaries and all is its most cumbersome aspect. We are not far enough removed from that election cycle for it to be seen fully and fairly from a historical perspective. And without examining the subsequent four years of the Obama presidency, that campaign alone doesnt have the relevance to affect the November 2012 election.

In addition, while the playwright does seek some sense of balance, its clear that he is primarily attempting to be an Obama cheerleader. Ignoring any accomplishments or failures of the current administration, hes not looking for the reelection of President Obama; through the wistful haze of a faux nostalgia, he wants to resurrect candidate Obama, and all that talk of hope and change.

On whichever side of the aisle one sits, this is political discourse about as deep as a Facebook posting or Twitter monologue. The scenes of grown men still acting like boys playing with their Star Wars toys becomes an all-too fitting metaphor.

The common political theme, while intended to give the piece its cohesiveness, is overwrought, and unfortunately overwhelms the more interesting personal stories that Montagne creates.

The most intriguing and perplexing character is Ethan Grey, the Mormon standup comic, struggling with his past and who wants to remain true to his faith while faced with numerous temptations to its moral strictures. Played with conviction by Taylor McClellan, Ethans journey rings true. His interaction with Dorothy, a friend of his mother, makes for some of the most touching moments. This is due largely to Janet Sheas quite lovely performance as Dorothy, a spitfire of an old gal, who has a lot of straightforward wisdom to share with her younger protge.

The wisdom of age also is seen in Spencer Howards portrayal as Terence Thompson, the dying father who sees his family being split apart. It would be easy to play him as a gruff, foolish old man. But Howard shows the spark within the character that is blunt but cuts through layers of bull to make his point. As his two oldest sons, Damien Moses and Martin Bats Bradford also are effective.

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Personal tales more compelling than political drama in 'Zeitgeist Chronicles'

Canterbury have the utmost respect for Melbourne's `Big Three', but Bulldogs skipper Michael Ennis says his side can't get caught up in one-on-one battles in Sunday's NRL grand final.

Ennis will go head-to head with the best No.9 in the game in Melbourne skipper Cameron Smith - one third of a triple Storm threat which also features Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater.

But the personal duel will take a back seat to team-oriented goals for Ennis - despite the Bulldogs rake acknowledging the importance of keeping Smith quiet around the ruck.

"Coming up against Cameron Smith, obviously he's the benchmark in our position and it's always a good challenge," Ennis said.

"I respect Cameron very highly, he's a terrific player and a terrific fellow, so I know I'll need to be at my best in my side and not worry about what Cameron's going to do for Melbourne.

"If you go into a game like this trying to win personal battles, you're letting your teammates down.

"I've got a role to play in this side and I don't think Cameron Smith or your Cooper Cronks or your Billy Slaters are blokes that can be nullified individually.

"They've got wonderful support around them.

"I know they talk about the big three, but there's plenty of other guys in their side that are terrific players."

But Smith, Slater and Cronk seemingly hold the key, with their play having a mesmerising effect not just on fans, but opposition players as well.

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Ennis not focused on personal battle

By: Kelly Chen

Updated: 9:47 p.m. ET

On Monday we begin American Graduate Week with a panel discussion moderated by senior correspondent Ray Suarez. We hear from several former at-risk students who share their personal stories and lessons learned on how they overcame their situations.

The panel includes:

Victor Rios, a former gang member turned sociology professor who mentors and studies at-risk youth. In an earlier NewsHour interview, Rios explained the importance of having someone take an interest in his life early on. "It was important for me to hear an adult tell me, 'Listen, we know you are a mess-up, we know you are a dropout, but we still believe in you."

Watch his story here:

Adam Steltzner may have led the landing team for the rover Curiosity on Mars, but he almost didn't make it to his high school graduation. Stelzner, now popularly known as the NASA engineer with the Elvis hair, struggled throughout school. "I passed my geometry class the second time with an F plus, because the teacher just didn't want to see me again," he told NPR. When adults told him he'd never amount to anything, he prioritized a life of sex, drugs and rock and roll. It was science -- the constellation Orion, in particular -- that later inspired him to go back to school and pursue engineering.

Stephanie Krauss: At 15, the self-described "punk kid from New Jersey," enrolled in rehab; she left a changed woman. Despite a troubled home life and chronic truancies in school, Krauss managed to pass the GED and by 18, she was a college graduate. She is now the president of Shearwater Education in St. Louis, which re-engages young adults back to school. Of the 75 students at Shearwater Education, half of them are parents, a quarter are actively homeless and a quarter are currently in foster care, says Krauss.

Watch her story courtesy St. Louis TV:

Original post:
Former Dropouts and Their Paths to Success

SIOUX FALLS, S.D., Sept. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Midco Connections, a leader in contact center solutions, has reached a significant milestone. Since 1982, Midco Connections has been dedicated to helping companies boost revenues and increase customer loyalty. Midco Connections call centers, strategically located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Fargo, North Dakota prove that the coveted US based Midwest work ethic and clear speech makes for unsurpassed quality in inbound and outbound call support, email response and live chat. With great people, great training and great results, Midco Connections delivers 24/7/365.

"We are extremely proud of our accomplishments over the past thirty years serving various industries as their branded contact center," said Cordell Brooks, the Vice President of Midco Connections. "The Key to our success is the ability to customize our platform to maximize the service level provided to our clients and their customers; blending quality personal contact while leveraging current technological advancements. As a multi-site operation compliant with both Payment Card Industry (PCI) and Health Insurance Portability and AccountabilityAct (HIPAA) requirements we offer clients the same features and benefits as the largest industry players in a flexible and responsive environment. With the advent of our Fargo, North Dakota center in 2011 we have rounded out our ability to deliver the genuineness and conscientiousness of the Midwest employee coupled with accent neutral speech. We are confident that this business model will continue to ensure our clients' branding success over the next thirty years."

About Midco Connections

Midco Connections is a wholly owned subsidiary of Midcontinent Media and supports locations in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Fargo, North Dakota. Midco was founded in 1982 as a Telephone Answering Service, and in just a few years it became clear that our customers wanted more than just an answering service they wanted comprehensive customer care offering product knowledge, shipping information, answers to callers' questions, data intake ability and above all excellent customer care. In short, they wanted quality call center services.

Find more information about Midco Connections at http://www.midcoconnections.com

Contact Information Cordell Brooks, Vice President Midco Connections 605-275-5450 cbrooks@midcoconnections.com

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Midco Connections Celebrates 30 Years of Success

Pensionmark continues to be a retirement plan market leader in leveraging technology to enhance employer and individual investor outcomes with the introduction of their revamped website. The enhanced, user-friendly website which was released in August offers greater functionality and a more comprehensive suite of educational tools to help employers manage their retirement plan responsibilities and to help individual investors on their path towardsretirement.

The robust Education Center offers hundreds of online resources including relevant articles, newsletters, videos, webinars, calculators, and more designed to help maximize plan and individualsuccess.

In our connected world it is imperative to provide people with resources that are at their fingertips and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our website was designed to provide that functionality while at the same time encouraging our clients to engage our service team and leverage our expertise, stated Troy Hammond, PensionmarksPresident/CEO.

Pensionmark has already initiated the next phase of the website rollout scheduled to be released later this year which will include additional advisor resources, educational content, and integration with mobile devices. For more information on Pensionmark and to see the new website, visit Pensionmark.com.

To stay connected, Like Pensionmark on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Pensionmark, Follow them on the Employer Twitter feed at http://www.twitter.com/PensionmarkEMPL or on the Individual Investor Twitter feed at http://www.twitter.com/PensionmarkINDV, or join the Pensionmark LinkedInGroup.

About Pensionmark RetirementGroup

With national headquarters in Santa Barbara, CA, the Pensionmark Retirement Group network represents 21 regional locations across the country with over 650 corporate clients. With offices in California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin, Pensionmark has established itself as a national leader in corporate retirement plan consulting. Its network of retirement specialists include defined contribution, defined benefit and terminal funding, not-for-profit, and executive and deferred compensation specialists. Financial advisors at Pensionmark Retirement Group may also be registered representatives with, and securities are offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advice offered through Pensionmark Retirement Group, a Registered Investment Advisor and separate entity from LPLFinancial.

Link:
Online Retirement Resource

RICHMOND, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is meeting todays challenges to increase student achievement in reading, mathematics, and science by building on the success of the Standards of Learning (SOL). It is encouraging innovation in the classroom, including the use of technology to enhance instruction.

This year, the Center for Digital Education recognized VDOEs Master the Math Mobile Application as the first place winner in the 2012 Digital Education Achievement Awards (DEAA) and Best of the Web Awards (BOW) Digital Application/Project category. DEAA recognizes outstanding contributions at the application, intranet, and infrastructure level, all to the benefit and quality of online education for students, teachers, and the community.

Master the Math is math on the go, Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia I. Wright said. The application engages students in mathematics content on the mobile devices that connect them with their friends.

Launched in September 2011, Master the Math is a mobile educational game that helps students prepare for the SOL exams by reinforcing the mathematics curriculum from grades three through eight. This mobile application features more than 800 questions from 19 released Virginia SOL tests. The application uses practice tests mixed with an interactive quiz presentation incorporating popular TV game show elements to form the multiple choice framework for the app. With its wide range of interactive practice opportunities with sound effects and clues, Master the Math embraces technology to offer exciting ways for students to learn and study. Hints provide a tidbit of information to help point the student in the right direction. Testers also can take a risk with Call a Tutor, who may or may not share the correct answer. By selecting a 50/50, two incorrect answers are eliminated. Each time an exam is selected, different questions are randomly presented. Questions frequently include visual elements, such as formula sheets, diagrams, graphs, and charts. Students have the option of selecting a difficulty level, viewing correct answers either during or after the test, and retrieving their score history.

Master the Math has been downloaded more than 20,100 times and has recently been averaging over 1,000 downloads per day.

About Virginia Interactive

Virginia Interactive, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of NIC, the largest provider of official websites, online services and secure payment processing solutions for state and local government entities across the United States.

About the Virginia Department of Education

The Virginia Department of Education provides support and guidance to the commonwealths 132 public school divisions which, combined, educate approximately 1.2 million students. The department administers regulations promulgated by the state Board of Education and assists the board in carrying out its responsibilities under state and federal education law.

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Virginia Department of Education Wins Digital Education Achievement Award for Mobile App

NEW YORK, NY and PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwire - Sep 25, 2012) - 10gen (the MongoDB company) today announced that it will offer free online MongoDB training courses starting in October. Under the new 10gen Education program, 10gen's instructors will teach a series of courses designed to reach hundreds of thousands of software developers interested in learning how to use the agile, scalable MongoDB platform as the foundation for building new applications. This program will help advance the skills of developers and administrators working with MongoDB, the world's most popular NoSQL database.

Richard Kreuter, lead consulting engineer, and Andrew Erlichson, vice president of education, will teach M101, MongoDB for Developers. 10gen CEO, Co-Founder and lead MongoDB developer Dwight Merriman will teach M102, MongoDB for DBAs. Students may now register at education.10gen.com, with classes to begin in October.

10gen has entered into a technology collaboration with edX, the not-for-profit online learning collaborative founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Under the collaboration, 10gen and edX will collaborate on software and technology for online learning.

Click to Tweet: 10gen democratizes MongoDB training--free online courses in October. Follow @mongodb for updates. #edX, #MOOC, #nosql, #bigdata

Massive open online courses are a new breed of online learning that has emerged over the past year and feature highly interactive pedagogical techniques that have transformed the experience of traditional web-based training. A select group of the nation's top universities are pioneering MOOCs, with early courses on technical topics drawing mass participants worldwide that could never be reached through a physical classroom.

"Teaching MongoDB online through the innovative MOOC format allows us to make our best instructors available to users worldwide," said Andrew Erlichson, vice president, education at 10gen. "Offering online classes is a natural fit with our open source approach and a logical extension to the dozens of MongoDB events we hold around the world each year."

10gen Education will provide in-demand technical training to a global audience at no cost -- at a time when unemployment rates are high in many parts of the world while demand for skilled MongoDB developers continues to accelerate. The new program democratizes MongoDB training by making it possible to teach hundreds of thousands of people online successfully.

The 10gen MOOCs will be grounded in highly interactive content combined with hands-on practical assignments to provide a positive and rich learning experience. Each course will be delivered in consumable video chunks with interactive quizzes and other built-in activities to ensure the participant remains engaged and on track with his or her progress.

Supporting Quotes:

"Education at our universities and in the workplace is undergoing an exciting transformation as instructors are tapping into the power of the internet and new collaborative techniques that revolutionize distance learning," said Anant Agarwal, president and first professor at edX. "We are pleased to team with MongoDB on its new 10gen Education program worldwide. edX utilizes MongoDB and our new collaboration is the natural evolution of our relationship with 10gen."

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10gen to Offer Free MongoDB Training Online

According to CBS News, the surviving members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) reunited this past weekend in New York. As professional athletes enlisted in the armed forces during World War II, chewing gum magnate Philip K. Wrigley formed the AAGPBL to keep baseball alive in America.

Inspired by a documentary produced by Kelly Candaele and Kim Wilson, Penny Marshall directed "A League of Their Own," a bittersweet 1992 sports comedy featuring a strong female cast.

In honor of the film's 20th anniversary, here are 10 lines/quotations that made the story such a major league hit:

Ernie Capadino: "Ever hear of Walter Harvey? Makes Harvey bars, you know the candy?"

Dottie Hinson: "Yeah, we feed them to the cows when they are constipated."

This exchange marked the first meeting between baseball scout Ernie Capadino (Jon Lovitz), Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis), and her kid sister Kit (Lori Petty). Dottie and Kit were milking cows in the barn, which made the sarcastic scout extremely agitated.

Walter Harvey and his candy bars are a tip of the baseball cap to Philip Wrigley and his chewing gum.

Capadino: "You know, if I had your job, I'd kill myself. Sit here and I'll see if I can dig up a pistol."

While waiting for Dottie and Kit on the train, Ernie endures a bragging salesman. Not one to tolerate a fool for long, the scout tosses a high, fast barb and makes a quick exit.

Mae Mordabito: "Boy, that was some good peeing!"

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True-to-Life Sports Comedy 'A League of Their Own' Celebrates 20th Anniversary

Tuesday, Sep. 25, 2012

Finding the solution to a difficult problem lies in asking the right questions. On the afternoon of Sept. 1, in a stylish office building in Aoyama, a gathering of Japanese life coaches practiced this Socratic skill in groups of four. It was a role-playing exercise, in which one person played the role of a client with a problem, and the other three took turns asking questions.

As I walked around the room, I caught snippets of the kind of questions that you often hear in job interviews.

"What do you want to do in four year's time?" one man asked. The "mentee" of the group, a bearded man in his late 40s, silently considered the question.

The activity was part of a conference on the future of the coaching industry, held at the Japan Chapter of the International Coach Federation, one of the largest global accreditation bodies for professional life coaches. It was also an excuse to the celebrate the fifth anniversary of the ICF Japan Chapter, led by Susumu Shinbori, an executive coach with more than 25 years' experience.

Interest in life coaching, which is often described as a training program to help individuals or corporations achieve specific goals, has risen sharply around the world in the last five years. According to figures released by the ICF, there are 47,500 practitioners worldwide with 3,300 based in Asia and the industry has generated $2 billion in total revenue.

In Japan, growth has been more modest than in Western countries, such as the United States, but Janet Harvey, the current president of the International Coach Federation, says that although the numbers are smaller, the rate at which ICF credential holders are increasing here is similar to that of other countries. There are now 120 practitioners with certifications from the ICF in Japan, up from three in 2002.

"Applications for credentials have been doubling every year," added International Coach Federation CEO Magdalena Mook.

While personal coaching has yet to take off in Japan in the same way that it has in the U.S. or Europe, the practice of executive, or business, coaching is fairly well established. More than half of the coaches in attendance at the ICF seminar were business coaches, and most of them have been practicing for nearly a decade.

Katsuhiro Suzuki, a senior manager in the airport quality-control division at ANA, has been an internal coach for more than seven years. He got into coaching about 10 years ago, after undergoing management training in the human resources department.

Link:
It's not all about the mid-life crisis

Long time coach Don Rodrigue has taken on new challenges at Thibodaux Regional Medical Center.

Chackbay native Don Rodrigue dedicated 39 years of his life to coaching local football players.

Although he recently retired as a coach, Rodrigue is still giving back to local high schools but in a different capacity.

Rodrigue was hired as a marketing coordinator for the Sports Medicine Center at Thibodaux Regional Medical Center in July.

Rodrigue, who is simply known as Coach Rod in the local football community, helps coordinate fundraising events and community projects for the hospitals sports medicine department, which provides free athletic training care services at local high school sporting events.

Rodrigue said his job is to improve the hospitals relationship with area schools.

I dont do training work, Rodrigue said. The trainers take care of the injuries. My job is to go out and make sure things are smooth. I coordinate with the head coaches and booster clubs and make sure they have everything they need.

Rodrigue spent 39 years as an assistant football coach on both the high school and collegiate levels, serving at local schools such as Nicholls State, St. James, H.L. Bourgeois and Vandebilt Catholic. He retired from coaching at the end of the 2011-12 school year.

The 64-year-old Rodrigue said he had opportunities to continue his coaching career, but when Thibodaux Regional CEO Greg Stock asked him to join the hospital, it was something he couldnt refuse.

So far, its been good, Rodrigue said. Im still involved with high school coaches and school kids. Im just not in a daily coaching job. I want to thank Mr. Stock for giving me the opportunity to do something new and enjoy a new role in my life.

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Longtime coach giving back to hospital