There has been some confusion about the Jason Thompson Direct Art Series and what it is exactly. The limited edition Jason Thompson Direct Art Series are the pieces of art that you receive in the mail in September, November, and August to remind you that it is time to give to the OWU Annual Fund and offers you compelling reasons to do so. These complementary pieces of art are designed right here on campus and sent to you free of charge- our gift to you for graduating from here, or being a parent of a student here, or just for being awesome.

Now I know what you must be thinking- "These things cannot be free- they're fabulous! I hang them up on my wall for everyone to see!"- but they are. All we ask is that you send a donation to the Ohio Wesleyan Annual Fund to support the current operating budget of the University. How much you send is your choice. What a deal!

Collecting the Jason Thompson Direct Art Series is a lot like collecting Hallmark Christmas ornaments series. You can't miss one- my mom has bought the Victorian House set every year since 1984- and you can get all of the 2006-07 Direct Art Series just by opening up your mailboxes! The first will be coming in late August.

Vacation at Work Week
Today in the office is comparable to the movie Home Alone: there is no one here except me, so I have run of the place. I've been jumping all over the place, sitting at my boss's desk, answering her calls, ordering things off the Internet with my OWU credit card, and other great stuff like just getting up and not combing my hair. All right, I'm not the only person in the office, but I am the lone representative of the Annual Fund, making me de facto Acting Interim Director of Annual Giving. I think I'm going to change that title to "Supreme Dictator and Commander of Annual Giving for a Specific Period of Time." In fact, this week, most of the Development staff has been gone, so I've been calling this week "Jason's Vacation at Work Week" with today being the culmination of the festivities with "Jason and Mary Lou's Super Fun Casual Wednesday."

Because the Vice President returns from his journeys tomorrow, Mary Lou will no longer be Acting ViP of UR ("UR" stands for University Relations. I think that "Acting ViP of UR" sounded like something from the "Lord of the Rings" or "Labyrinth"- starring David Bowie- which made me laugh*), so Jason's Vacation at Work Week will really only be three days, but what a great three days it has been.

* You may ask "Jason, what makes you laugh? The 'ViP of UR' thing or the Labyrinth/Bowie reference? Neither is very funny..." The answer to this question is... both. The Lord of the Rings thing is funny because of people take fantasy too far and actually think of names like the "ViP of UR" for themselves and dress up like their favorite characters and then go out in public to watch the movie!

The Labyrinth/Bowie thing is funny solely on the fact that it is funny. Look at this picture- now that is funny. I mean, they actually dressed like this and took these pictures on purpose...

# posted by Jason Thompson @ 3:41 PM