The Cordle Fam

We are completing our few weeks of break… I am quite sad to get back into the real world. I just thought that I would put up a picture from today. Bo came in town last night and he took us out today on the boat. It was alot of fun. Right now he is cooking us dinner. What a great Big Brother. Here is us on the boat from this afternoon. I will put more pictures up later and write more about these past few weeks.

What an odd weekend it was. As you may know, I spent all last week in Atlanta prepping for, and working the Men’s SEC Basketball Tourney. Me and my counterpart at UGA were in charge of operating the courtside LED tables. As luck would have it, I was actually back in Auburn on Friday night when the tornado hit the Georgia Dome (it was our last home gymnastics meet of the year). As soon as I left the Coliseum, Mike (from UGA) called me and asked if I could go ahead and head back up to Atlanta to give him a hand.

I didn’t get up there until about midnight, and by then they had decided to postpone the last game until Saturday. So, around 1am, me and Mike walked around the CNN Center and Centennial Olympic Park. I couldn’t believe it. It’s only by the grace of God that there weren’t hundreds of people killed. For one thing, when the tornado hit, the Mississippi State game was in overtime. Had Mykal Riley not made the 3-pointer to force the game into OT, you’d have over 10,000 people standing outside of the Dome at that exact moment.

This was a picture I took on Friday night. On Saturday, I saw Jim Cantore doing a live shot on the Weather Channel standing in the exact same spot. Crazy.

It was eerie to be walking around so much destruction. We walked through the lobby of the Omni Hotel, and the janitor was wiping up blood stains off of the nice tile floor. It was nuts. I’m also amazed that there were no major injuries reported inside the dome itself. One of the guys who works for me said that a bolt fell from the top of the dome, and landed on the seat beside him. Those things could kill a fella. Here’s a shot I took from inside the dome on Saturday.

Since they moved all of the games to Georgia Tech, I ended up with Saturday and Sunday off. I was able to hang out with Thomas & Leah on Saturday, and watched the UGA game Sat. night at Thomas’s place. And since I was still in town, it just so happened that I made it to Tech on Sunday to watch Georgia win the SEC title. Who would have guessed that one? As soon as I got there, I found out that they were handing out tickets at the gate, so I called Thomas & Leah, and they came out as well. It was nice to be able to take off my credential and just be a fan for once…

Anyway…I’m busy this week getting ready for Auburn’s spring football game. I may try and visit Anna for a little bit down in Gulf Shores though. Hope y’all are having a great week!

O My Gosh, Words just can’t explain how much fun the past 4 days have been. I have been in Hilton Head at the Van Dee Mer Tennis Complex helping out with the Tennis portion of the Special Olympics. There were about 100 athletes from 12 different states competing. There were around the same amount of JSU Students there helping. All the athletes competed in a singles match against each other and then each athlete was paired up with a JSU student and they were doubles partners.  So, I was paired up with a girl named Jen Myers from North Carolina. She was a really good player. She came determined that she was going home with the Gold! We pulled it out and she went home with 2 Gold Metals. One from singles and one from doubles. I was so proud of her.

This week I have so many funny stories and many memories. I wish I could tell you about all of the players. Just to give you a little bit of a better understanding of what this week has been like, Janele came up to me in the middle of the week and said “I feel like I am living in the movie, The Ringer!” It is so true! As I type this right now I am thinking of all the memories and I am seriously laughing out loud! These athletes are great! I had so much fun getting to know them. I wish that everyone could go and experience what I have experienced the past few days. I have some videos and many pictures, but I will have to tell you more later.

This is a picture of me and my partner Jen after we completed our doubles match.

And here is the the picture where we are receiving our medals!

Ok, so he didn’t respond to me directly, but maybe he read my blog and realized they messed up. Here’s part of an email he sent out this afternoon…

AU ALERT is a brand new system – in fact, we first used it this week. In developing it, we established a high threshold for its use so that only in situations of imminent danger requiring immediate and broad action would it be utilized. That way, we knew the message would be taken very seriously. After this incident, and through the input of our parents, it became clear that while we can quickly reach students and employees on campus through regular e-mail and voice mail channels, our parents aren’t part of those channels. Many of them do have numbers registered by their students in AU ALERT, though. It also became clear to us that we should notify our community even when we don’t have all the facts, rather than wait to get the facts.

Procedures are meant to be reviewed, and we will, effective immediately, send an AU ALERT as soon as we are notified of a serious situation, even when we do not have complete information and even when authorities relay there is no imminent threat.

Thank you. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.

Also, it sounds like police may have made an arrest tonight in the case. Newnan somehow has something to do with it. Weird.

Hello Everyone!

I am about to get on a bus all the way to New Orleans for Fiji’s formal.  I’m really excited! It will be good to get out of Auburn after everything that has gone on this week. 

I think Bo did a great job of informing yall of everything. It is scary to think this happened in a parking lot right behind my dorm. The same parking lot that I sat in my car by myself for 20 minutes waiting on the security shuttle to pick me up the night before.  The latest update I have heard is that Lauren was not sexually assaulted and that they found a gas can on College Street that may be some evidence. They have not made any arrest in the case, but apparently they are “very close.” Who knows if that is true? 

There is going to be a memorial service for Lauren on Samford lawn Monday for all the students to attend. The school is also having a session with the dean Monday night for the students to voice their concerns on safety at Auburn.

 Throughout this whole thing I have realized to be very aware of my surroundings, but I have also realized I have a mighty God who is protecting me. My favorite verse has been very comforting this week. “Do not be afraid for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

Continue to pray for the Burk family and Lauren’s friends! 

Love yall, Miss yall 

p.s- I left the sink running for about 30 minutes today. My bathroom was completely flooded and water was coming into my room. What a great brother I have, who came to my rescue and took all the wet towels and mats to be cleaned. Thanks again Bo!  

I’ll try and lighten the mood a little bit compared to yesterday’s post. I’ve recently become slightly obsessed by a service called “Twitter“. It’s part IM, part chat room, part Facebook Status. I’ll let the guys at Common Craft explain it better than I can…

As you probably know, Lauren Burk, a freshman at Auburn, was shot last night around 9pm. About a half hour later, her car was found in flames in the parking lot beside the AU band’s practice field. Caroline found out in her 10:00 class. The first solid news reports didn’t surface until 10:30 or later this morning. At 12:50pm, 16 hours after the fact, Auburn University sent out its first email to the student body.

This, I find ridiculously unacceptable. It’s not unusual for Goob to park in that parking lot. 4 or 5 nights a week, I jog within 50 yds of where Lauren’s car was torched. When something like this happens, you MUST let people know immediately.

I’m not trying to blame the University or the police for what happened. To an extent, these things are practically unpreventable. And I know that the police are doing everything they possibly can to figure out exactly what happened and make an arrest. I personally know Assistant Chief Tommy Dawson who has been doing the interviews with the media all day. A really feel for him…he had to call Lauren’s parents last night. I can’t imagine what that must be like.

But I have to ask myself what the possible reasons are for them to wait so long to let people know this happened. Is it because they didn’t want to tarnish the University’s image? Were they hoping that they would catch the murderer before they had to issue a statement? Did they feel that it was an isolated incident, so no one else was in danger? Or maybe they were so busy trying to solve the case and find the person that nobody thought to involve the communications department.

I’m sorry, but none of these excuses are valid.

• The University’s communications department has full responsibility to prevent it from a tarnished image. The best thing they could have possibly have done was send out an AU Alert (that’s the system that can send a msg to all student’s cell phones) last night. It could have been as simple as “A student has been shot north of campus. It appears to be an isolated incident, however, students should remain alert and report anything suspicious. Police are investigating, and will release more information tomorrow morning.”
• It is very possible that they could have caught the murderer in the 12 or so hours that the city was out of the loop. But even if they had, would they have gained anything by keeping it a secret? And if you’re looking for leads, I have to think that sending a text message to 23,000 students would go a long way towards getting a few.
• Even if they were pretty dang sure that it was an isolated incident, what can they lose by letting people know what happened? I’m sure that Va Tech wishes they hadn’t pulled the ‘isolated incident’ card when they did. I completely understand the police keeping certain bits of information secret for investigation purposes…I have no problem with that. But there’s a big difference between that information and “news”.
• Was it a staff issue? I would have to imagine a communications staff as advanced as Auburn’s would have systems in place in the event that something like this occurred. I know several of the guys who work in that department, and they’re all great people. I just don’t understand how this slipped through the cracks.

I get the impression that the University sees this more of a city police issue. Nope. The city police are responsible for finding the killer. You’re responsible for making your students, staff, and community feel safe.

Posted by: Joy

Here Ye, Here Ye, Here Ye, your presence is requested by the king and queen of the Tarpley kingdom to attend an enchanted Princess Birthday Party for her highness, princess Mary Joy on the magical occasion of her 1- year old birthday.

This royal celebration will be a princess costume party where all are invited to dress in their prince and princess wardrobe. Our enchanted birthday party will take place on March 30th and will begin at 1:00pm

The King and Queen request that all royal subjects planning to be in attendance please RSVP by March 24th.

Her royal highness princess Mary Joy looks forward to your attendance at her princess birthday party which promises to be an enchanting time for all.

Our party will take place at the Tarpley castle located at 120 Longwood Lane .