Me & MIT

I thought these pictures were amusing, especially since we were in Boston not too long ago. If you look at the three black and white pictures, you can't help but notice the crazy building. That's the MIT Stata Center. Here's a picture some guy took. And here's mine. (OK, so we didn't actually get off the trolley to go see it.) Perhaps subconsciously, I didn't want to go see the building up-close because MIT is SO different than any school I have ever attended. I know at least one guy who is smart enough to go there, but he decided to stay out west where the sun shines more. Oh well, I'll stick with English and the not-so-fancy-pants kinds of schools.

Our Neighborhood

Last night, I took the dog for a walk at dusk. The afternoon thunderstorm was finished tearing through the neighborhood, and the sunset made for beautiful pictures. We are lucky to live where we do; Rogers Park is a diverse and ever-changing neighborhood. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to get a taste of city life on the lake.

Here's a few more: the skyline and Spencer the ghost.

Due to high critical acclaim...

...here's another video of Elayna.

Summertime for an academic

The beach is nice in the morning. We can get out there to get sandy and sweaty before the crowds come. Today, Elayna threw sand in her mouth and waded into the lake. She loves it - both the taste of sand and the lake. Summer offers a nice chance to play outside; it's nice because Chicago winters are so dang cold and we have to play inside with the same toys over and over again.

I ran across this pertinent tidbit of information via ALD:

"In the popular imagination, humanities professors don’t have anything to be ambitious about. No one really knows what they do, and to the extent that people do know, they don’t think it’s worth doing — which is why, when the subject of humanistic study is exposed to public view, it is often ridiculed as trivial, arcane, or pointless."

This is where I stumble on to the stage looking a little confused. Someone from the back asks, "Did you really choose a job that is not only pointless, but also low-paying?" I shade my eyes from the white-hot spotlight that is centered on my face and answer, "Um...yeah." To be sure, I don't think of my career choice (English Instructor) as pointless, nor do I think many of you do either. But it seems that there exists a phenomenom in our culture which situates academics somewhere between vagrants and savants. The article in question, describes recent portrayals of male professors in movies - a portrayel that is less than complimentary. It is true, as the article notes, that the perception of professors is changing (as is the field of academics in general). What was once a group of white guys wearing tweed jackets and smoking pipes, has become a scrambling bunch of geeky, young grad students hoping to score even the most menial jobs in hopes of securing tenure. Is it too much to ask to earn an honest living by teaching English? I sure hope not, otherwise, I'll have to look into becoming a professional reader or something.