Jogged Memory

As I was perusing one of my old friend's flickr pictures, I came across this one, which made me jealous because I had been planning on taking a picture of one of the many statue of liberty people outside of all the tax places. What's different about this one, though, is she really reminds me of one of The Letter People. Heh. The Letter People. I'm not sure if anyone else had The Letter People in kindergarten, but they freaked. me. out. Go figure that when I search for them on youtube, the scariest one of them all--Mr. T with his Tall Teeth--is one of the first episodes that pops up. If you even make it to the part where they start a dialogue (around 2:25) it's kind of hilarious to see how much they overcompensated on the t sound. Mr. M should have worn a raincoat:

A Lesson in Filters

Though my photography class is still frustratingly hands-off and non-visual (dude...at least throw some slides in if you're just going to lecture), it feels good to produce some tangible and visual results which I'll share.

Outside of contact sheets, these were the first prints I actually made and the key lesson here was to use 3 different filters in the enlarger to produce 3 prints of the same photograph. The end result is varying degrees of contrast.
#0 Filter
20 second exposure on the enlarger







#2 Filter
18 second exposure on the enlarger







#5 Filter
25 second exposure on the enlarger

So it's easy enough to see the difference the filter makes, but this also became a lesson in margins and focusing. The assignment asked for 6x9 photos on 8x10 paper. I don't know if the easels were just crap or what, but if you look close enough, the margins are all off and to top it off the #5 isn't completely in focus (click on it; you'll see)...things that could be possibly helped by the presence of an instructor. This is what winds up sidetracking me in the darkroom for 4 hours because if these things are off, you have to reprint it...and this is where digital has me spoiled because the amount of time it takes to see if you did that adjustment correctly is just insanely long compared to using a slide rule in photoshop. Grr.

Test Day

I've mentioned Quizlet before, and now that I'm in class again, I've found a reason to put it to good use and am loving it for my linguistics class today. My most recent discovery is that I can embed a matching game of my terms into the blog. Just wanted to see how it looks here...Feel free to play your heart out on the phonetic consonant chart set that I'm posting:


Update: Apparently Quizlet and I work really well together. Just found out I got an A- while the average grade was a C.

Why I Don't Score Well on the GRE

The evil of class and race hatred must be eliminated while it is still in an _________ state; otherwise it may grow to dangerous proportions.
(A) amorphous
(B) overt
(C) uncultivated
(D) embryonic
(E) independent

The answer is (D). But this sort of question trips me up because I read it, realize that they want me to select (D), but I'm sitting there in disbelief that they're considering class and race hatred in an "embryonic" state. Last I checked, race and class hatred had quite the history behind it. In fact, I'd say these issues are pistol-whipping, middle-aged adults who found the fountain of youth. Ask a resident in Mott Haven, NYC, and I might guess that "dangerous proportions" sounds like a nice day compared to the apocalyptic nature of her street.

Then once I get past that, I marvel at their choice of metaphor: an abortion. It's an interesting choice. I'm not offended by it, but I get back to the history of race and class issues and this is not an "embryonic" abortion. This is a third term, baby about to pop out abortion. These issues aren't recent occurrences!

You can imagine how much time I lose on instances like this.

Media Monday! Visual Math

Perhaps if it had been taught this way, I would have gotten past "Banking Math" in undergrad.

Phil the Sore

I first heard about Phil the Sore on "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!" Phil's whole deal is to promote syphilis awareness as he plays the villain in a variety of ads, commercials, and even shows up at community events as a 3-D swollen, bumpy sore! Go on, kids! Gather 'round the Sore for a picture!

Now *I* would say that Phil falls into a category I talked about a long long time ago called "physical threat advertising."

Take a look at these negative/aggressive traits:

• He's red--the color of anger, itself
• Downturned eyebrows, which say, hey! I'm mad! but those curves at the end suggest he's mischievous as well
• Tough buzz cut however sparse suggests a militaristic side
• The earring is questionable--could be the Don't ask, don't tell part of the militaristic or a I'm so tough, I can take a small needle through the ear! I'm a rebel!
• His eyes only want to look at you when he can be head-on with you
• And he's baring his teeth
  

If you looked at the comments section of the "Physical Threat Advertising" post, one of my very smart, beautiful friends (and fellow blogger, publicprivate) had this to say:

You will find this funny, but I learned from my health messages classes in public health grad school that negative images practically never work. The only thing that works to get someone to do something is to punish them when they do it (or don't do it, if the case may be). But people rarely are scared from fear-based ads. Because we know the Rhyno can't actually see us, and won't actually come after us after we do something that is unhealthy. If the posters were a warning that there is a Rhyno on the premises and he will, in fact, kick your ass if you are participating in underage drinking, well, that's pretty convincing. Especially if you are witnessing, out of the corner of your eye, Rhyno beating someone up for underage drinking not ten feet away.

Seeing as Phil the Sore is specifically part of the public health sphere, I was wondering how he fares in the realm of health message effectiveness. He has many negative/aggressive traits, yet may be on the premises and will essentially punish you so that makes him effective no matter how strange a mascot, eh? Or does his smile (which I find to make him seem opportunistic in conjunction with his eyebrows) and "cute-ification" (if there's something such as a cute sore) nullify the negativity?

Then again, if I was an onlooker who knew nothing about Phil, how would I know he's not The Angry Raspberry?

And just for comparison there's the brother campaign of Healthy Penis.

Two New Additions

to the blogroll:

• fellow grad student and kindred spirit, Jen, explores issues in the writing and teaching of composition and rhetoric as she wraps up the final stages of her Ph.D. Of course, what Ph.D. wouldn't be complete without a little indulgence in the things that procrastinate/keep us sane in acheiving that goal? Therefore expect knitting projects sprinkled here and there amongst the entries of a brilliant and compassionate scholar in On Pens and Neeedles.
• fellow reader of Chris Glass' blog, Ted, saw Chris' entry on meeting me and was led to my blog, where he commented and related our commonalities. Cincinnati, Crocs, and San Diego among them. Mere days after returning from vacation, I run into this guy at the grocery store where we proceeded to talk long enough that I started to worry about my meats. Anyway Ted's Blog, The Gideonse Bible, both thoroughly entertains and informs on a consistent basis (as he works on his Ph.D. as well!). Jen, meet Ted. Ted, Jen.

Alte Aula

Man! This is one hard place to get into! On my third trip back to Alte Aula, I finally made it in--barely. Now remember, folks, I'll reiterate that being a part of the university, Alte Aula follows university holidays and breaks (which are a plenty), is always closed on Mondays, and now I've come to find out that it closes during a certain window of time on the days it *is* open so they can Pledge the place for 9 hours. And I can only vaguely tell you that the beginning of that cleaning time was on a Thursday afternoon around 1pm-ish. The staff ever so graciously let me visit for a generous 15 seconds in what was once the Student Auditorium (now Old Auditorium). As you can imagine, it was here that students came to listen to debates, with a not-so-visible podium in the front, and one at the back where the photo was taken in what we would consider the choir loft...next time Ryan and I have a "debate," I'll place him on one side of the room and I'll climb up a ladder on the other side of the room and see how communication works itself out.

Opening Times (follow the hours of the Student Prison and University Museum)
Related post: Task #25: Studentenkarzer (Prison)

Euphemism Generator

Not surprisingly in a German class full of foreigners, there are sometimes awkward interactions. And it's also not much of a surprise that this usually stems from not understanding the words the other person is saying, or not finding the words you need to explain yourself. But more interesting is when the misunderstanding comes from cultural differences and not because you lack the vocabulary. My interaction yesterday went like this:

S: I have a question.
Kell: Okay.
S: Sometimes when I read a sentence, I understand the literal meaning of every word, but I don't understand the whole sentence.
K: Okay.
S: Why?
K: Do you have an example?
S: No. I only want to know why I don't understand.
K (feeling slightly confused at this point): Well German is a foreign language that you're learning and sometimes the German mentality doesn't translate great. (This seemed to satisfy her to a greater extent than I expected...I thought I was being slightly funny).
S: Naturally it's another language, but if I understand every single word, why don't I understand the whole sentence.
K: I'm not sure I can help you without an example.

S became very frustrated with me. She simply wanted me to tell her why she couldn't understand. To her, a specific example was beside the point--this was all very clear and it struck me as very strange that another person wanted me to tell them what they were thinking. S is a Muslim from Turkey and it's the second course I've had with her and we're partners in 90% of our exercises. I don't like to readily label differences as something being cultural (because the more I get to know many of the people from various nations, the more I realize most of the world is frighteningly the same as far as personality types go), but the past six months have definitely manifested that a strange control has been exerted over this girl--sometimes elementary confusion over an aspect of sex that might come up, but a seemingly full understanding of the complicated relationship of a concubine, for example.

With much resistance she brought an example to me five minutes later. Turns out the sentences that were confusing her contained German euphemisms.

On that note, have a look at the Euphemism Generator. I don't know that it's "endless amusement" as they claim, but it might get a heh out of you.

Onward Young German Student

Just fyi, when you look at all the Heidelberg tour sites or the city site itself, they'll all show you these sunshine-y versions of Heidelberg that I hardly know. The past two weeks have been relatively nice but the above photo is pretty accurate in terms of what the weather is like most of the time. This was the view from my past German course.

The update is that I took my German test yesterday afternoon and passed. I'm having my end of class internal debate on whether I should continue with daily classes or cut them down to two nights a week. Why should I cut down, you ask? Because I still have that pesky Masters that I don't like talking about to finish. But if anyone has ever had the amount of free time that I do then you might sympathize with just how hard it is to discipline yourself into getting stuff done. I think I'm probably getting more done with a class (even though it isn't much) than if I had the day wide open to me. Somehow I did it when I was at school. I guess it's just easier when you have a community around you. And I don't feel like I can give up the German classes because they're really too valuable to life here. After a year I'm still having a hard time knowing where to focus my energy.

So I guess it's tally ho, German class.

Cheers!

Deutschkurs Grundstufe 3 (Basic German class 3) just ended on Friday and I have a test coming up to get into Mittelstufe (Intermediate) classes. It's called intensiv because the classes are Mon-Fri. from 9am-1pm, but it's been intensive for reasons beyond the schedule. Different nationalities, races, religions, cultures, ages, are forgotten because we're all relatively new here, don't speak the language, and are a little lonely for some company during the day...since 9am-1pm would indicate that most of us are also unemployed. It's quite the push and pull for everyone because of this. Intense swings of neediness and need for your own time. Intense thinking just to try and explain yourself or how your feeling. Intense homesickness. Intense love for the new community. And intense change. Whereas I've been though this with some for eight months, I still meet new people in various levels of German class every day and a healthy amount of regular faces show up at the park by the Neckar river to hang out on Friday afternoons after class...probably where I got the most out of using my German because it's the only language most of us have in common. And it's amazing how far a little German *can* go when I'm talking to Tay from Iraq, Abdel from Palestine, or Sumeye and Zeynep from Turkey.

Deutschkurs 3 marks the end for a lot of people who will move on to other jobs, cities, schools, etc. So as a tribute and celebration of all the people I've talked to in the past eight months, I'd like to say:

• Cheers!
• Jambo! (Kenya)
• Fisehatak! (to your health in Iraq)
• Shucram! (United Arab Emirates)
• Vashi! (Iran)
• Saude! (Brazil)
• Na Zdrave! (Bulgaria)
• Salud! (Chile)
• Gom bui! (Chinese, though I don't know which form)
• Na zdraví! (Czechoslovakia)
• Salud! (Dominican Republic)
• À votre santé! (Algeria)
• Prost! (German)
• Eis Igian! (Greek)
• A la sature! (Indian)
• Kampai! (Japan)
• Salud! (Mexico)
• Salud! (Peru)
• Na zdrowie! (Poland)
• Noroc! (Romania)
• Budmo! (Ukraine)
• Na zdorovje! (Uzbekistan)
• Na zdravie! (Yugoslavia)
• Serefe! (Turkey)
• Can ly! (Vietnam)
• Salud! (Spain)
• Salud! (Paraguay)
• Gëzuar (Kosovo)
  

Is This Thing on?

Luciana (Brazil), Jackson (Peru), Marcin (Poland), Standa (Czechoslovakia), & Manuel
(Spain) from German class
Stand-up comedians will tell you that persistence is key when trying to make a career out of comedy; that you have to get through the flop jokes and lame audiences you'll inevitably have before you make your mark. Should I decide to one day take to the stage, my German class has given me ample experience in the aforementioned. Usually three people get my humor, but I err on saying that three out of twenty is a flop.

Quick lesson:

• I have a desire...
• I try...
• I have time...
  
• I have planned...
• I have permission...
  
• I am afraid...
• I will help you...

These are a few of the translated phrases we learned today which require you to use the infinitive form of the verb when you finish the sentence. So naturally when people were asked to give three examples we heard things along the lines of, "I have time to play Basketball," "I try to learn German," and "I have planned to make rice." My flops were:

I have planned to kill my brother.
I am not afraid to die.
I will help you to buy a big knife.

I mean, it was practically German haiku!

Square 1, Day 1, Deutsche 1

Blame it on being married now, blame it on my spacey-ness, or blame it on the rain...I forgot to think about what to wear on the first day of German class. By no means am I fashion savvy: buying a pink fleece pullover would be adventurous for me, and I wore Birkenstocks to my civil service wedding. But I take the most pleasure, even become a little giddy, in planning for that first day of class. In years past I've laid combinations of clothes on the floor and gazed upon the two dimensional versions of me, unsure of how to judge their worth until I've manipulated the arms and legs into various dance positions.

After choosing a fleece and a pair of my Birkenstocks, I know it's not about the excitement of how I look or making first impressions. Once you've bought a fresh pack of your favorite pens, clothing is the last thing you have to think about as preparation for your first day. Of course it's the excitement of new beginnings. Of course it's the clean slate. Of course it's learning new things, meeting new people, and taking an active role in enriching my life. I even feel lucky that these examples seem so obvious to me. But more than that it's the day a cynic is allowed to be optimistic and hopeful. It's the feeling that you can wear the same clothes differently. It's the feeling of "even if I don't know what to do with my arms I can dance." It's the hope that an idea one day might rock your world so much, that a disco ball may as well drop out of the ceiling and impel the class to bump hips. From pre-school to grad school, I've never had a bad first day. Today was no exception.

As people introduced themselves and said where they were from I realized the only things I haven't unpacked are optimism and hope. Here were sixteen people who were so eager to laugh, interact, and who often seemed to be stoically looking at a time beyond their immediate environment. I recognized that look but knew my appearance wasn't reflective of their own. I desperately want it to be and I feel like this diverse crowd (represented by Czechoslovakia, Canada, Palestine, Spain, Poland, Turkey, Syria, Vietnam, Romania, Brazil, the United States, and Greece) gives me every reason to have newfound excitement, optimism, hope, and purpose here. In all my years of school I can't remember a bad second day. In preparation for that, I'm going to buy my books and look for a new pair of pants.