How do you like your greys?
The architecture at SFU is evocative. It inspires double-takes and depression. Yeah, you heard me. Depression. It’s probably because it’s mostly concrete, which is grey, and at the top of a mountain, so it’s often covered in clouds that only exacerbate the grey-ness.
But it also inspires those double-takes. The “tunnel” above is a walkway leading from the Academic Quadrangle, featured in a photo two days ago, to the W.A.C. Bennett Library, featured in yesterday’s photo. During a sunny day, it is lit in all kids of angled lines and the light keeps shifting as the sun moves through the day. The entire Convocation Mall, the area you can see ahead through the tunnel, is lit in strange angles. At the right time of day, the shadows and light look like they were designed by M.C. Escher. Awe-inspiring.
Good morning, from SFU
This is what it looks like when I arrived at SFU yesterday morning. I have to arrive, to mark exams, between 7:30 and 7:45 in the morning, as we start marking at 8:00. With the incredible weather we’re currently enjoying here in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, the sunrises are gorgeous.
Well, I guess you might have already guessed that.
Enjoy your Sunday!
Seeing Double on Saturday
I was marking Provincial Exams at Simon Fraser University today and the weather was insultingly beautiful. Insulting because it was beautiful and I was contractually obligated to sit in a room and watch the sun pass across the sky through our classroom window.
I got out during lunch and shot some of the area and managed to get some wonderful candids. The one above is a photomerge of two captures taken one after the other. He was really moving, apparently. I was just playing around but it seemed kind of fun so I’m posting it. It’s about the most obviously manufactured photo I’ve ever posted here. I hope you find it amusing.
My mind is foggy…
…and tomorrow’s the first day back to work after two weeks off.
Wish me luck…and clarity.
Mind on the beach
Where I’m going to be in a week? At school, back at work for the next ten months.
Where I wish I was going in a week? Back to the sandy beach of the Oregon Coast.
I guess there’s always the lottery to make that come true. Or, another 21 years and then retirement.
C’mon lottery…
Bragging? No. Really.
Tomorrow morning, at 8:00, I’ll be welcoming up to 240 9th Grade students to my school. Along with forty-eight student leaders, I’ll be attempting to entertain and inspire these students to greatness in their first year of high school. It won’t be easy. It will be fun. I will pass out when it’s all over. This post ends now, because I have to go read the script you see above one more time. And probably again. And once more…
All is mostly well – here’s a new photograph
This is the ceiling of the Maggie Benston Center at Simon Fraser University. It houses the university’s bookstore, the Student Services center and a myriad of other student services. It is also where I’ll be marking exams again tomorrow. I’ve already marked for a day, but there’s at least two, maybe three days of marking left. The room in which I mark exams overlooks a large grassy area on which students lie around a suntan while I read the papers of a couple thousand students. I missed marking today (although, if I am completely honest, I didn’t miss it that much) due to a medical concern yesterday.
After nine hours in emergency, x-rays and blood tests, the doctor diagnosed a complication in my abdomen. After ruling out appendicitis and most likely ruling out a kidney stone, Doc decided that I’ve got a little (well, Large) intestine issue. So I’ll be eating a ton of fruit and drinking enough liquids to drown myself over the next couple of days and I’ll get it all sorted out.
Well, that was more personal than I meant it to be.
Line of thinking…do people think in lines?
There’s a line in a poem by Taylor Mali (I think the poem is “Train of Thought”) wherein the speaker ponders whether people who think in “trains of thought” aren’t lacking creativity. That people should be thinking in “dirigibles” and zeppelins. They can go anywhere, back, forth, up, down, where train of thought thinkers can only move forward or back at a relatively slow pace.
Now that the school year is finally over, I’m happy to say that my line of thinking is less line-like than ever.
On the other hand, I seem to be gleefully moving toward summer and I’d like that line to be as short as possible.
Hey. New Photo! I did it!
I took this photo while I was at school today. In fact, I’m still at school. My friend Kris and I will be attending a scholarship dinner tonight in Abbotsford, so we decided to stay late, get some work done (or in this case, some photography), go to dinner, then go home.
This is a “lug” on the side of a conga drum in our band room. I, once upon a time, wanted to be a drummer. What I found was that my feet work or my hands work, but they don’t like to work together. Yes, I can walk and move my arms, but anything more demanding than that and all heck breaks loose. So I accepted my lack of coordination and moved on. My obsession with things that make loud noises, however, has never been stronger.
Anyway, I’m off to Indian food for dinner. Or, in other words, I’m off to show my stomach who’s boss and ingest more butter chicken and rice and naan bread than I really should.
Busy, busy, busy…sorry this is late.
I could make a bunch of jokes, like: ”I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place.” Or, “I’m leaving no stone unturned.” Or…actually, maybe that’s all I could come up with. I just got back in from my school’s awards night and I have ten hours before I have to be teaching again and I’ve had no time to take new photos.
Oh, and I am writing almost exclusively in run-on sentences now so forgive the lateness of this post and I hope to be remedying the situation shortly. Either that or I’ll have a nervous breakdown.
Yay!
Oh. The photo? It’s a big crack in a mountain in Manning Park.
The end of all must be nigh…
I feel as dead as the trees in the photo. I’ve got dry eyes, sore muscles, tired brain and little will to go on. Don’t get me wrong – this is not a public cry for help. It’s just late in the year, the students are losing focus, the teachers more so, and I’m ready for a break.
Summer’s coming, but there’s three and a half weeks to go. Hallelujah!
Late night post…oops
Here’s a post that’s super-late. We had a dance at the school tonight and I’ve been home for five minutes. I don’t want to miss a post this year, so here’s the late night post. I wish I were able to write about this one because I really like this photo. Maybe I’ll talk about it…zzzzzzzzzzzz…
Christmas concert season is well under way
In fact, Christmas concert season is pretty much over. Haha. After two concerts on Wednesday and two this weekend at church, we’re done. Now, all I have to do is make it through this last week of school and I’m free. It’s not that I don’t like Christmas season, but it sure is nice when it’s over.
Yo, DJ. Play that song again.
I am currently sitting in a hotel room in Montreal looking over a great number of photos I’ve shot over the last six days. I’m in Montreal for the Canadian Student Leadership Conference. The graffiti above is in one of the hallways in Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School. The conference has been awesome, except for one thing…
I’ve been getting a bit sick of the music that’s been played at the conference for the last three days. Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite”, Flo Rida’s “Club can’t handle me”, and Ke$ha anything. If I never hear these songs again it might be too soon. The kids love the songs, but I think even they are starting to feel a bit tired of the DJ playing the same songs again and again. I know I am.
Always know what’s being locked in, or out.
Recently I’ve become enamored of locks and chains. Perhaps it’s the fifteen year old boy living inside my head who still loves firecrackers and matches and the painful comfort of bruises (yes, I poke my bruises, don’t you?) who wants to get past the lock and chain to find out what’s so valuable that it has to be chained in.
The lock and chain below belong to my kids’ school yard. It is meant to keep vehicles, not people, out of the yard in which children play. I get it. Safety. I don’t want to see some errant Mom, frustrated by the lateness of her children, accidentally hitting the gas instead of the brake and careening into a bunch of children playing tree tag. Good lock.
The lock below, on the flipside, is on the same grounds as the lock above, but I’ve never once seen it locked. It is a lock on a dumpster. Presumably it is there to deter Dads from throwing away their McDonald’s garbage before their kids see it, and make the school pay for the disposal (uh, not that I’ve ever done that).
If I were you, I’d expect to see more lock photos in the coming weeks. I seem to be on a bit of a kick here.
Pentax K20D; Tokina 28-70mm
Empty fields means empty kids.
When I was in my first year of teaching a decade ago I was idealistic and academic. I taught English to grade eleven and twelve students and was content, maybe arrogant, enough to believe that the only way students would become better humans was through academics. I offered time after class and after-school sessions for exam prep. I inspired students through my passion and enthusiasm for literature, and even let them read books with swear words (because it was relevant and would help them relate) in them. Students loved me and some even began to learn how to read and write better. Some wanted to know what I thought they should read beyond what they were assigned.
One major stumbling block, as I saw it, were organized sports. Rugby, basketball, volleyball, soccer, football, they were all culprits in taking students’ minds off of what was really important – learning. There was nothing to be learned by throwing a ball around or hitting others at full strength and speed. Schools should be places of learning, and the community could work out the sports. And if they couldn’t do it, well, it wasn’t my problem to work out.
Now that I have children, a daughter who’s nine and a son who’s six, and I teach student leadership I realize how short-sighted and naive and ignorant I was ten years ago. Kids love to play. And, shockingly enough, kids learn so much while playing. My kids have learned confidence, patience and teamwork. They’re learning that their dad is a bit slow and out of shape and that they have to play nice with me or I get hurt. I’ve learned that life has to be experienced not just read about. I’ve learned that if our fields and gyms are empty, so our kids will be. And I learned all of this from experience in the field (sorry about the pun).
Pentax K20D; Pentax DA 18-55mm AL II; f9; ISO 100; 1/640 sec.
I drive a sports car; the rules don’t apply.
While I waited for my daughter to get out of class a couple of days ago, I noticed this sign on the driveway of her school. I also noticed the sports car in the background. I know that it is a sports car and not a bus because it is small, silver, and has a spoiler on the back of it. I rode the school bus when I was a kid and know that a bus is huge, yellow, and does not (unless it’s in a demolition derby or some kind of school bus version of a Formula One style race) have a spoiler. My deductive reasoning skills tell me that this car is out of place.
It is also out of place not just because someone is breaking the rules but because someone at my daughter’s school drives a sports car at all. Most teachers do not drive sports cars. The obvious reason is economics, given our current rough times. The less obvious reason is that most teachers I know are sensible, reasonable people who would see little need in driving a car with more horsepower and performance capability than they could or would ever use. We’re practical people, us teachers. Sports cars aren’t practical. And…oh…I just figured it out.
This car must belong to a parent. Never mind.
Pentax K20D; Pentax M SMC 50mm; f1.7; ISO 100; 1/640 sec.
Welcome
My friend Ian Tyson came to my school this week and spoke to the students. He’s a great speaker and the kids were captivated by both his humor and his personal stories. The best part is that he’s a geek like me. When we met it was like the universe brought a brother for me who likes comics, movies and superheroes as much as I do.
Here’s the plug. Check out his website: iantyson.ca. If you’re a school teacher, check him out and hire him. He’s great.
Pentax K20D; Sigma 70-210mm; f8; ISO 1600; 1/30 sec.
