My Name Is Trouble.
Day one:
My sabbatical is with Duke Divinity School through the Baptist House of Studies. This has been made possible through Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina’s “Helping Pastor’s Thrive” program. I will be on study leave for a month.
Now that I got the commercial piece over, lets talk about how this day went. It was not fun.
I arrived at Duke Monday morning, not really knowing what this would be like. It has been kind of nebulous what I am to do. I am being sponsored as a “scholar in residence.” That a buck will get you a cup of coffee at McDonald’s.
When I got here I had to get a Duke ID in order to do anything. To help you understand the rest of this, I need to tell you a story.
When I was born, my mother named me John Michael Parnell. My first name is my father’s and my mother wanted to name me Michael. Michael must have been that time’s Noah or Liam. But she wanted me to go by my middle name.
No one calls me by my first name, unless... Unless you went to college or seminary with me. In those years I was John because it was easier to be John than make everyone call me by my middle name. Being in a class of about 100, you were just better off going with the flow.
My mother said for years she wished she had named me Michael John in instead of John Michael. Now I do, too.
I tell you this to tell you about the ordeal of getting a Duke ID.
Callie Davis is the executive assistant for the Baptist House of Studies and she contacted me. There were forms I had to fill out to get the ID. I did, but...
No one told me that Duke would not issue me an ID under my preferred name. My preferred name is Michael, as you know.
When we got to the office to get the ID I was told that they would not issue it to me under my preferred name, which is the name I use in everything. I filled out the form with that name.
I had to change my name on the material to get an ID. And that led to a truly frustrating journey. Callie and I worked on it for most of the day. The biggest problem: just getting into the website to make the change.
Every time I tried to log on it kicked me out because it said I was using the wrong log on information.
Add to this that no one in the IT department at Duke could just go in and change it. No one had the power to override what was there. The only person with that power was me, and I could not use it because I could not get on the website.
By the end of day one, I was very upset. To use an old saying from my youth, “It was enough to make the preacher cuss.”
But as they say on television: “Wait! There’s more!” That will come tomorrow.
My sabbatical is with Duke Divinity School through the Baptist House of Studies. This has been made possible through Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina’s “Helping Pastor’s Thrive” program. I will be on study leave for a month.
Now that I got the commercial piece over, lets talk about how this day went. It was not fun.
I arrived at Duke Monday morning, not really knowing what this would be like. It has been kind of nebulous what I am to do. I am being sponsored as a “scholar in residence.” That a buck will get you a cup of coffee at McDonald’s.
When I got here I had to get a Duke ID in order to do anything. To help you understand the rest of this, I need to tell you a story.
When I was born, my mother named me John Michael Parnell. My first name is my father’s and my mother wanted to name me Michael. Michael must have been that time’s Noah or Liam. But she wanted me to go by my middle name.
No one calls me by my first name, unless... Unless you went to college or seminary with me. In those years I was John because it was easier to be John than make everyone call me by my middle name. Being in a class of about 100, you were just better off going with the flow.
My mother said for years she wished she had named me Michael John in instead of John Michael. Now I do, too.
I tell you this to tell you about the ordeal of getting a Duke ID.
Callie Davis is the executive assistant for the Baptist House of Studies and she contacted me. There were forms I had to fill out to get the ID. I did, but...
No one told me that Duke would not issue me an ID under my preferred name. My preferred name is Michael, as you know.
When we got to the office to get the ID I was told that they would not issue it to me under my preferred name, which is the name I use in everything. I filled out the form with that name.
I had to change my name on the material to get an ID. And that led to a truly frustrating journey. Callie and I worked on it for most of the day. The biggest problem: just getting into the website to make the change.
Every time I tried to log on it kicked me out because it said I was using the wrong log on information.
Add to this that no one in the IT department at Duke could just go in and change it. No one had the power to override what was there. The only person with that power was me, and I could not use it because I could not get on the website.
By the end of day one, I was very upset. To use an old saying from my youth, “It was enough to make the preacher cuss.”
But as they say on television: “Wait! There’s more!” That will come tomorrow.
Dr John ( just kiddin) so sorry your first was a technical mess. I hope it gets better and you enjoy. Mike and Ann
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