6-Month Update!

Guys. Do you realize the 27th is going mark six months since we've graduated? Is that crazy or is it crazy (or am I counting wrong? Maybe the 27th is when I started Bard?)

Also, do you guys realize we went to a fucking amazing undergraduate institution? If so, just how much do you appreciate that? Because the more Sam and I talk to our peers about their undergraduate experiences, the more we're both like, "Oh. Wow. Why is their college more famous than ours?"

FOR EXAMPLE, I mentioned to the dean of the program today that I resented my current research project (a 20-page lit review) because I had done original research in all of my upper-level history classes. I had mentioned this to my classmates throughout the semester (because I complain, therefore I am.) One of my classmates, who plans to be a professor when he grows up, told me he didn't do any of his own research until his senior colloquium, and even that sounds like it was highly structured. A Columbia grad in my interdisciplinary class today said she had never looked at a math journal in her undergrad days. I KNOW, right?

So after class, Ric came up to me and asked me to remind him where I went for undergrad, since it sounded like I had a pretty rich experience. (PS he knows Alice Lesnick, one of the ed profs at Bryn Mawr.)
"Haverford."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"I see where you're coming from, then."

Back-patting aside, my second quarter in the program ends as of 12 noon tomorrow. I will have from that time until 6:30 am on January 3rd to work on said lit review and assorted final projects. I am looking forward to filling the time with the printmaking kit Erin got me for our first anniversary.

So what's been taking up my time? Honestly, if I was just taking these classes I'd have more time to update. But actually I also student-teach from the start of the schoolday 'til noon. Then I'm in class until 4 or 5:30. Then I have to do homework (reading two books a week and creating mock lessons and unit plans for my classes.)

Right now I'm student-teaching at this awesome school (the teacher they interview at the 1:30 mark, who keeps saying "holokawst" is a real goofball. I luv him. The school is regents-exempt, their graduate rate is higher than the city average, and their mascot is the "Aggressive" (ie Black) Panthers. I see two sections of a ninth/tenth-grade integrated class: one is general ed and the other is a team-taught integrated special ed class. My mentor teacher is an alumna of my program and is bffs with a professor that I hope to be bffs with one day because she's so damn cool (I call her Yoda and she calls me Luke. Yeah.) I don't think my teacher is an older version of me, but in terms of personality we get along really well. Our planning periods tend to be goof-off sessions.

Today, as the culmination of the first part of my time with them, I taught the last hour of their 2-hour block today. It was a lesson about the kinds of questions historians ask about history (what is true? How do we know the truth? Is it possible to know the truth?) The kids ate that shit up. It was so awesome. I stayed up for hours last night imagining worst-case scenarios and it was totally unnecessary. As much as I'm going to enjoy my time off, I'm looking forward to coming back to work with them.

NSFW... or is it?

I know this isn't primarily supposed to be an image combat sort of deal, but I just found out about a hilarious (old) phenomenon that I just had to share. Have you ever heard of "work safe porn"?

The idea is this: take pornography, then edit the image so that it isn't porn any more.

Like so:


























Now, sometimes this works better others. Patching over images willy-nilly can look contrived.

Like so:


























Or so:
























And sometimes, brilliance!

Anti-pacifism in Cal.

I don't think I've seen anything like this before. Striking.

Any thoughts?







http://sfist.com/2011/11/01/yucky_anti-violence_leaflet_handed.php