The Irreveranting Professor 

& Self-Proclaimed Comedienne of Higher Education

Cody Jean Hargrave Arvidson, Ph.D.

Education Consultant & "Resume Queen"

(as labeled by clients & college students)

• Author of The Guide for Your Success in Earning Your Doctoral Degree

  • (available in PDF format on CD or bound paper copy)

• Dissertation & Doctorate Support Group

• Degree Solutions Group

Aspiring Novelist (a.k.a. ProfCody) 

• Working Title: SPiTE & Malice

  • The world of Magnolia State & SYTH has been progressing toward a cataclysmic climax. Click on the title to read chapter one.

• NaNoWriMo 

• Randy Ingermason's Snowflake Method for Novel Writing

• Kelley Armstrong's The Otherworld Discussion Board

Published Researcher

• Degree Solutions Group

• Book Review Editor for the Community Review Journal, emphasizing the special missions of the community college and entities that partner with them for improving communities.

• Author of the National Professional Certification program for student affairs professionals  housed at the Center for Higher Education, UNT.

Great Quotes Worth Sharing

On Achievement

• Desires are the moving springs of action. ~ John Dewey

• The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

• Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another. ~ John Dewey

• Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.... ~ Albert Einstein

• First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. ~ Epictetus

• The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

• There is nothing like a dream to create the future ~ Victor Hugo

• Power consists in one's capacity to link his will with the purpose of others, to lead by reason and a gift of cooperation ~ Woodrow Wilson

Do or do not. There is no try. ~ Yoda

On Education

• Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. ~ Nelson Mandela

• Education is a social process. Education is growth. Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself. ~ John Dewey

• The wisdom doesn't come from the theories; the theories come from the wisdom. And the wisdom comes from the defeat of all the more attractive alternatives. ~ William Graves Perry

• It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows. ~ Epictetus

On Faith

• Faith is not belief. Belief is passive. Faith is active. ~ Edith Hamilton

• Whoso loves, believes the impossible. ~ Elizabeth Barret Browning

• Without faith, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible. ~ Mary McCloud Bethune

• Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties -- Erich Fromm

On Fear, & Failure

• Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes. ~ John Dewey

• Fear is not your friend! ~ Cody Arvidson

• If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong. ~ Charles Kettering

• If a fellow is up Shit Creek without a paddle, and you get into the canoe with him, that makes two people up Shit Creek without a paddle. ~ William Graves Perry

• Most people only put one foot into the stream of life, keeping the other foot firmly planted on the solid bank --which isn't there. ~ William Graves Perry

On Challenges

• No person has the right to rain on your dreams - Marian Wright Edelman

• In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.... ~ Albert Einstein

• Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds.... ~ Albert Einstein

• If you want to make enemies, try to change something. ~ Woodrow Wilson

• The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers. ~ M. Scott Peck

William Graves Perry, Ph.D., 1913-1998

On Ideology

• We must be the change we wish to see in the world -- Ghandi
  An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run. ~ Sydney J. Harris

• A conservative is someone who makes no changes and consults his grandmother when in doubt.... ~ Woodrow Wilson

• A conservative is a man who sits and thinks, mostly sits.... ~ Woodrow Wilson

What an Achievement!

Amazing to reach such a height!

Betcha wouldn't've thought Ricochet could jump from a chair to the top of this actively swingin' door if ya hadn't've seen it fer yerself.

And here's yet another great height. See that picture just above Dr. C's mortarboard?  If you do, you are looking at her Uncle Kermit "Sleepy" Boaz's Football Hall of Fame Plaque from his 1990 induction at North Texas.  Uncle Sleepy (b. 1914) was a championship football player there, back in the day! Oh, and who is that little ol' lady with Dr. C? That's "Nana," Eron Boaz Bodine (b. 1909), Uncle Sleepy's last living big sister. Nana offered her financial support for my efforts to pile my education higher & deeper, because as she put it, “more of you girls need to be gettin' an education,” and her unachieved dream was to earn a degree.

My Favorite Education Related Links

Degree Solutions Group

FasTracKids Academy, Plano, Texas

University of West Florida

Texas A&M University

University of Kansas

University of North Texas

University of Saint Mary, Kansas

Dallas Baptist University

Dallas County Community College District

Pensacola Junior College

Johnson County Community College, Kansas

University of Texas @ Dallas

Michigan State University

Go to College Center for the Lone Star State

PhinisheD

Drop me a note with your questions or feedback: irreverantingprofessor@degreesolutionsgroup.com

Cool, Wacky, & Smart Links:

Instructions for Life

Things you Shouldn't Say at Your Dissertation Defense

Mayan Resorts ~ Puerto Vallarta, Cancun, Alcapulco

"Up" by James Hargrave @ Reflection's Edge E-Zine

Famous Left Handed People

National Hurricane Center, NOAA

Babee Tenda ~ The Ultimate Baby Feeding, Playing, & Everything Table!

United Methodist Church

UMCOR ~ hurricane & disaster relief donations

Finance Guru Dave Ramsey

Free Financial Advice

"No Child Left Behind Hoax" @ Rethinking Schools Online

Resource: Skills List for resumes from The Univesity of Waikato's Careers Advisory Service

Free Vocational Personality Test @ Career Key

The Best Vocational Personality Test known as the Self Directed Search, but it does cost money

Free Personal Thinking Styles Test @ The Learning Web

Free Learning Styles Assessment

Internet Movie Database

Information on Alzheimer's Disease

Information on Huntington's Disease

Recommended Books for Personal Inspiration

What Would Machiavelli Do? The Ends Justify the Meanness by Stanley Bing

The Power of Intention by Wayne Dyer

The Ancestral Mind: Reclaim the Power by Gregg D. Jacobs

Making the Most Out of College by Richard Light

In the Eye of the Storm by Max Lucado

Failing Forward: How to Make the Most of Your Mistakes   by John Maxwell

The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player: Becoming the Kind of Person Every Team Wants by John Maxwell

Today Matters: 12 Daily Practices to Guarantee Tomorrow's Success by John Maxwell

Live Your Best Life Now by Joel Ostein

The Courage to Teach by Parker Palmer

Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice

The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren

The Angel Inside by Chris Widener

The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukov

Some of My Favorite Fiction Writers

(in no particular order)

Anne Rice

Sherrilyn Kenyon, aka Kinley MacGregor

Kelley Armstrong

Charlaine Harris

Lynsay Sands

Kim Harrison

Laurell K. Hamilton

Katie MacAlister

Mary Janice Davidson

Sandy Blair

Some of My Favorite TV Shows & Movies:

Alias - Ended in 2005 after 5 great seasons (I miss those great action scenes anymore.)

Big Love (HBO. I admit it. I'm hooked, and after subscribing to Dish Network for 10 years, I finally subscribed to HBO also because of it. My friend Jen calls it "a train wreck you can't take your eyes off," and she's right since the show's so addictively weird!)

Battlestar Galactica (SciFi. I liked the  1970's iteration and watched it religiously as a kid, but I love 2000's iteration, because it is hard hitting and cool too. Talk about addictive! Geez!)

Heroes (I never did get into Lost, but I find this show amazing.)

Bones (This show is super smart, and those freaky academic ego laden interactions between the academic types...they're on point.)

Supernatural (but that's just because it's "good research" for writing my own good stuff)

Star Wars: Episodes I - VI; Clone Wars 1 & 2

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005; What a fun flick!)

Firefly (Little Screen. But I'm still mad at FOX for sabotaging it.) & Serenity (2005; Big Screen)

Buffy (7 seasons; 1992 flick) & Angel (5 seasons)