He’d been having trouble with students who had nothing to say. At first he thought it was laziness but later it became apparent that it wasn’t. They just couldn’t think of anything to say. One of them, a girl with strong-lensed glasses, wanted to write a five-hundred word essay about the United States. He was […]
Read more "photo adventures — the upper left-hand brick"
When I was in high school, I traveled to Switzerland with some close friends. One of my friends (Tom) was there to visit his girlfriend, and me and the other guy (James) were there to tag along. It was my first visit out of the country, and being in the Not USA had the effect […]
Read more "Balance: A Counter-Argument"
i’m finishing up packing for my trip to Iceland and the Faroe Islands. i’m equal parts excited, nervous, and impatient. i’ve been planning this trip for over a year, and now that my departure is less than 24 hours away i feel…well, i guess don’t quite know how i feel. any time you plan something […]
Read more "Day 0 — Packing up my Fears"
It’s 9:26 am and I’m making coffee. I’m back in Colorado today. Thanksgiving is over, but my vacation continues another week. The joy of being in a relaxed environment in the middle of a weekday morning, when I’d normally be frantically trying to accomplish item seven on my to-do list before the meeting in four […]
Read more "Making Coffee"
I was talking to Keegan earlier today about knowing where you’re going. It’s a hard thing, knowing where you’re going. Or, I should say, it’s a hard thing pretending to know where you’re going. The fact is we humans like to pretend that we know where we’re going. We like to use this pretend knowledge as a […]
Read more "Turn Right Now!"
I was talking to Holly yesterday, and something that happened freshman year of high school came up. She threw in the phrase ‘six years ago,’ and I was totally caught off guard. ‘Six years ago?’ I thought. ‘I can’t believe it was that long ago.’ Maybe it’s just me, but it sure seems like time […]
Read more "It’s Ten Years Ago!"
When we usually hear the phrase “Two steps forward, one step back,” it’s in the context of lost productivity. That is, we’re undoing some of our progress through mistakes. There’s another way of conceptualizing this phrase that’s been bouncing around in my mind the last few weeks, though. What if we the change the connotation […]
Read more "Two Steps Forward, One Step Back — My 2013 Yearly Review"