I hate grading
You know that story about how some monasteries require applicants to stand outside and wait for three days before they can enter? After a semester of teaching a bunch of kids who are just there to fill in a blank on their degree rubric, I understand that now. So many people aren’t in college to learn, they’re there to buy a piece of paper. And when you expect them to do more than sit there in class and stare at the wall, they balk. Sometimes there’s one or two good students, but they’re the exception. It would be nice if we could limit our students to those who wanted to learn. <br /><br /><span class=”caption” >Dinner on no diet day. Gotta love it.</span><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/i_hate_grading/1191/grill.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><br />Oh well. I’ll never be an ancient sage of anything, either, and I’m not taking another teaching job, unless it’s teaching photography as art. I’ll never forget the blank faces I got after showing my students “La Jetee.” It wasn’t that they didn’t understand the film, they had just ignored it. Anyway, the sun is shining, the outside is gorgeous, and I’m off.
Posted by matt on 2009-05-06T00:00:00Z GMT
stoking my paranoia
from <a href=”http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/05/an_expectation.html”>Schneier</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>… Twenty years ago, if someone wanted to look through your correspondence, he had to break into your house. Now, he can just break into your ISP. Ten years ago, your voicemail was on an answering machine in your office; now it’s on a computer owned by a telephone company. Your financial accounts are on remote websites protected only by passwords; your credit history is collected, stored, and sold by companies you don’t even know exist.<br /><br />And more data is being generated. Lists of books you buy, as well as the books you look at, are stored in the computers of online booksellers. Your affinity card tells your supermarket what foods you like. What were cash transactions are now credit card transactions. What used to be an anonymous coin tossed into a toll booth is now an EZ Pass record of which highway you were on, and when. What used to be a face-to-face chat is now an e-mail, IM, or SMS conversation – or maybe a conversation inside Facebook.</blockquote>
Posted by matt on 2009-05-05T00:00:00Z GMT
Just to prove that I don't just shoot parties...
I took my camera to the grocery store. I have an idea: to make interesting pictures when nothing is happening. It’s a weird personal barrier I have, a switch that is either on or off in my head; if it doesn’t seem to me like anything is happening, then nothing is. Of course, something is always happening, “the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock.” (james baldwin) <br /><br /><span class=”caption” ></span><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/just_to_prove_that_i_don’t_just_shoot_parties…/1193/0001.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><br /><span class=”caption” ></span><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/just_to_prove_that_i_don’t_just_shoot_parties…/1193/0002.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><br /><span class=”caption” ></span><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/just_to_prove_that_i_don’t_just_shoot_parties…/1193/0003.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><br /><span class=”caption” ></span><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/just_to_prove_that_i_don’t_just_shoot_parties…/1193/0004.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /><br /><span class=”caption” ></span><img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/just_to_prove_that_i_don’t_just_shoot_parties…/1193/0005.jpg” alt=”Photos” />
Posted by matt on 2009-05-04T00:00:00Z GMT
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