Organizational Fatigue & The Plague

Dear Blogger,
I slipped these new photos from the Halloween Parade in, just under the monthly time limit. I hope you like them.
They're not scary. You won't get the plague...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10959363@N05/sets/72157602818742370/
But you might get the organizational fatigue.

Happy Halloween,
Steve

Of The Holy Apostles And Of All Saints, Martyrs And Confessors, Of All The Just Made Perfect Who Are At Rest Throughout The World

Dear Blogger,

It's Halloween! We're going to a parade tonight up in Belmont. I'm hoping it will be almost as exciting and bizarre as The Big Parade, but I'm not holding out. How could I?

I had a meeting with my supervisor and my internship adivsor from the CC. Everything went o-kay. I'm apparently going to learn how to write grants, sometime soon. If my boss, who is still gone, gives Ahmad her permission. Meaning I'm probably not going to learn how to write grants soon. She's notoriously stubborn. (She fired a girl once because the girl's mother died, and she thought the girl was lying to her to get out of work. Although, that might not be stubborn, that might be insane...)

I have a presentation for class tomorrow on a writer for The Chicago Defender, and an outline for my directed study on Friday. Things are getting even busier. It'll get done if I can motivate myself.

Mazel Tov,

Steve

George Steinbrenner vs. George Steinbrenn-ah

Dear Blogger,

I have nothing to say, but the Red Sox won the World Series last night.

For eighty-some years, the Red Sox were defined as the team that fought the Yankees tooth and nail. Even if they still lost, we loved them because they did what no one else could: stood up to the Yanks. The good ol' Red Sox.

Not anymore. They've won the World Series twice in four years, and more importantly, they've broken that damn curse.

Stop it.

There's no curse.

God doesn't curse baseball, and, if there was, why would God curse the Red Sox?

Listen:

The Red Sox are just like the rest of the shmucks in the major leagues after they broke that curse. No, wait. They're not! The Yankees have the highest payroll, the Red Sox have the second. They're not just like the rest of us! They're just like the Yankees.

And everyone in baseball thinks the Yankees are evil, right?

Go, Team,

Steve

Mannheim Steamroller Rolls On Through

Dear Blogger,
A whole lot of nothing happened this weekend. Friday morning we had our directed study class. Our assignment due on Friday was to think of a topic we might want to research. I was initially interested in researching the infamous Chicago Democrat Machine. (There was, I think, a thirty year period where little, or maybe there were none, Republicans elected to public office... how did this come about?) I decided at the last moment, though, to research what circumstances led to hate groups in the Chicago area to forming.
Of course, when I told the class about this, The Formation Of Hate Groups, they thought I said The Formation Of Eight Groups. Meaning that when the class was supposed to be helping me to form an idea for my project, there were a few confusing minutes when they were telling me that I should narrow my topic down to maybe two groups.
Then there were a few more embarassing moments when people asked me how I was going to get interviews with hate groups. (We hadn't learned until three minutes earlier that interviews were necessary. I'm interested to see how that will work out.) The end result is that I've never ever in my life gotten helpful advice from any group on any project. I don't think they're stupid, I just don't think people should be giving me ideas on an idea that I'm still forming, unless they're the professor. Things just don't work that way.
On Saturday, nothing happened at all. Ani and I watched Robert Altman's MASH. If you haven't seen it, it's very dark and consequentially, very, very funny. Highly recommended. (Donald Sutherland's Hawkeye doesn't quite have the natural charisma of Alan Alda's Hawkeye, but Alan Alda's Hawkeye doesn't have the twisted sense of humor as Donald Sutherland's Hawkeye.)
Halloween is right around the corner! I got my costume this weekend. Not a word on what it will be. Pictures, eventually.
It's hard to get anything done around here on the weekends, but what is the point, really?

Arches And An After Thought,
Steve

IT'S A BOY! IT'S A BOY!

Dear Blogger,
I just talked to Mareike Wieth on the phone, and I'm all set. Registration on 11/6, 3:30 EST.
I'm apparently one class away from getting a minor in Psychology. A minor used to require RDA II, which is a big no-no in my eyes, just to get a minor something that seems like it only exists on paper... but apparently only RDA I is required. I guess I could be excited, but since I ran out of time to finish the Sociology/Psychology major, receiving a Psychology minor feels like going for the lowest bar. (But isn't a minor kind of about making yourself look good on an otherwise useless piece of paper?)

And here's what's been happening elsewhere:
I just spoke to the previous owner of my phone number, who Googled their name and came across this blog. After an exchange on AIM, we came to understand a few misunderstandings, made some small-talk, and the person asked me to remove the post that was previously here. It was a good story about miscommunications, but I really do need to respect the privacy of people-- especially that of people I don't know at all. So, I've removed the story, but I remember all the good details and will probably tell you if you ask me.

Your Federal Offender Friend,
Steve

I Wasn't Able To Save Mine...

Dear Blogger,
It has been a while, hasn't it?
This weekend was fairly busy. Friday we had our mural presentation at our teacher's house where he made us blueberry pancakes and we watched everyone's presentations. Then Scott, our teacher, talked about segregation in Hyde Park for a long time. Apparently the university considered abandoning its campus during the early fifties when the neighborhood was beginning to change. (Imagine leaving all those beautiful gothic buildings to rot!) They decided to stay, eventually becoming the saving grace of this neighborhood. But of course, since no segregation story at all is pretty to listen to, Hyde Park's integration comes at a price. This neighborhood, being different (affluent) from the other neighborhoods, they try to keep themselves separate. Meaning that I never noticed it, but there are NO public basketball hoops anywhere in Hyde Park, except in a park near a high school somewhere southeast of where I live... and these hoops are taken down at night. Why? Because the Hyde Park community is taking precautions to keep younger people who might be wandering into the neighborhood with no strong ambitions at the moment, who might then start playing basketball, which might then stand around, which then lead them to become bored, which might then lead them to start trouble. In Hyde Park.

Friday I went to the Great American Six Flags, in Waukegan where my friend Ashly works and didn't have to spend any money, and was in a Zabel Sandwich most of that time. Saturday, I came back into Chicago on the Metra, got back to 1447 at one, left at 6:30 to see The Darjeeling Limited. (Pretty good, no Royal Tenenbaums, of couse. But there were some really touching moments) Got stuck in the middle of downtown Chicago on a Saturday night along with the rest of everyone else in the city, and the trip home on the 6 took forty minutes longer than it usually does.

And because I'm off-campus this semester, and because Drew is also off-campus (sabbatical), I have a stand-in advisor, Mareike Weith. Now, the problem here is that I'm not really a psychology major at all anymore. (I forgot/made a last minute decision to drop that major and didn't have time to switch to Sociology.) So now I have to explain to this woman that I don't really need her advice, and why I was to dumb to change my major.

But here's my potential schedule:

Social Research (MWRF, 9-10) Dimeji Togunde (Required for sociology majors)
Men & Masculinities (TR, 3-4:30) Scott Melzer
Introductory Geology (MWF, 12-1) Beth Lincoln (Science requirement)
LAB (W, 2-5) Also with Beth Lincoln
Social Psych: Soc Perspectives (TR, 10-12) Scott Melzer
Badminton & Tennis (TR, 1-2) Scott Frew

Now, I realize that I have two classes with Scott Melzer. Okay, I do like Scott Melzer. But is it really worth it? I have these modes and categories things to fill, after all. At the same time as Melzer's Men & Masculinities, my old friend in the anthropology department, Hadley Renkin is teaching:

Environmental Anthropology (TR, 3-4:30)

It fulfills the mysterious Environmental category. But it also seems interesting. I have to make that decision.

And Keith also talked me into applying for Summer FURSCA. I have to e-mail someone in the A&S department, probably Scott Melzer, and ask if they'll have me. I'm at a loss, I don't really know what I want to research but that I want to do it. The best thing is to just jump on it, I guess. I'm going to e-mail him very very soon.

Rock & Roll For Toopy,
Steve

Six Feet Under

Dear Blogger,
I just watched this, and I love it so much:


Always,
Steve

Tunnels

Dear Blogger,

It was around ninety degrees on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday, it was typical fall weather: in the lower-seventy degrees. Yesterday, Thursday, it got cold and kind of unpleasant. It's become the windy city, finally. And it's almost Halloween!

We went down to the southwest side of the city yesterday for class. We've been talking about white flight, so went to see a few neighborhoods. Marquette Park, which was once a wealthy, entirely white neighborhood, as well as the location of one Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s marches in Chicago. Marquette Park is now almost entirely black, because like many other neighborhoods in the south and the west side of the city, many of the white people fled to the north side (ironic) or the suburbs or the southwestern side. A few of the white people are still remaining, like in the old Lithuanian neighborhood, where there is a gigantic, beautiful Russian Orthodox Church that is expecting to close down within the next decade from lack of participation.

We've been reading a book called There Goes The Neighborhood, which is essentially about the changing demographics of many neighborhoods in Chicago. According to this book, there are two ways people deal with their changing neighborhood: voice and exit.

• Voice being standing up and either stopping or effecting the change for better or for worse, like one neighborhood (I can't remember which) that tried to build a giant wall to keep the blacks separated from the whites. Or, Hyde Park, which is pretty well racially integrated. Which I would say is only really because the university is the backbone of the neighborhood and actively supports the neighborhood. I can't really comment on race relations, otherwise.
• Exit being white flight, essentially, just white people abandoning their old neighborhood and moving to the suburbs or another neighborhood. People who can't afford to leave are usually the elderly, or the poorer, and sometimes become the minority within their neighborhood. (The former Lithuanian neighborhood.)

Most of the times, these changes leave neighborhoods impoverished. One of the neighborhoods is extremely poor, has active gangs, and as a result at some unsettling attempts of voice, was the headquarters of the American Nazi Party. (It's been replaced by a Blockbuster.)

And when the people relocate, they just start over again, rebuilding neighborhoods. We went to Clearing, in the southwest side of the city, where many white people relocated to after white flight. The City of Chicago requires that all city employees live within the city's boundaries. Clearing is interesting, because it's on the border of the city, but looks to be suburban. It's near the airport, the streets are wide, everything is spread out, and everyone owns a Ford or a Chrysler. It's also notable for having the highest concentration of police officers and firefighters than any other neighborhood in the city. (Which results in a hyper-patriotic neighborhood, where there's a US flag recycling bin, and cars with NRA bumper stickers, Bush/Cheney '04 stickers, and big SUVs.)

Given this city's touchy relationship with race and the police force, what's going to happen if the neighborhood begins to integrate itself? We talked to a lady from a neighborhood nearby, and it's starting to integrate. It's unavoidable that Clearing not integrate eventually. Where are these people going to go? Are they going to move again? How are things going to unfold? W.E.B. DuBois said the color line is going to be the biggest problem of the 20th century.

Good Luck, Laika,

Steve

One Million Strong For The Barack O-Barameter

Dear Blogger,

We found Barack's house. It's on the corner of Hyde Park Avenue and Ellis Street. We drove past it on our fieldtrip to the Southwest corner of town for class. One of the girls pointed it out to us.

Disappointingly close. I've passed this house almost everyday, and never knew it. I'm kind of disappointed that the search came to an end so early in the semester. Secretly, I was hoping for a semester long search, climaxing with me finding it the last week I was here. It's just a big brick house with shrubs, a black iron fence, and a basketball hoop in the driving way, and right across from the local synagogue.

He's an everyman, I know, but I'm secretly kind of disappointed.

Interestingly, a smudge has appeared on the Barack O-Baramater. He owns a plot of land right next to his house that was owned by Antoin Rezko.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoin_Rezko)

It's not really that big of a deal, I say. Everyone buys tainted land. There's land in Albion that's considered a toxic waste area. Indict someone in Albion, not Barack Obama.

Go, Tribe!

Steve

Enrique's Journey

Blogger-

More photos! More photos! More photos!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10959363@N05/sets/72157602348929392/

I'll upload some more when I take them-- I have plenty of space left in my account. This one is more exciting, but less moody than my last set.

best,
sb

NO! STOP! GET BACK!

Dear Blogger,
Two Saturdays, one of the guys in the program was almost mugged. He was waiting for the Green Line by himself, at around nine, I think, and two guys threatened him and tried to take his wallet. He ran away and told the security guard at the station and they caught the two guys. Apparently they had been looking for these men for a while.
Anyways, don't worry about anything. (That neighborhood he was in is a mile west of Hyde Park, and we never go anywhere alone after night. But I'm not really sure why he was alone...) And honestly, I feel safer in Hyde Park alone at night than I feel when I'm in Albion at night.
It was just one of those things that happens sometimes.
The Chicago Center is making us go to a personal safety program tomorrow night. Besides, who in Hyde Park would mug me? A university student? I would probably end up mugging the mugger.

Be Safe,
Steve

The Dynamic, Again

Dear Blogger,

I got nine separate calls from Keith this weekend, haha. I feel blessed.

It seems as though things are really starting together in Chicago. Not that they weren't going well before, but it seems like they're really going well right now. We're starting to realize that some parts of the program weren't quite what we expected, and as it applies to "things" that "are really starting together", we're accepting those things and moving on with life.

Things are going well in the apartment. Ani got me into Farscape, which is a sci-fi show... produced by Jim Henson's son, and features some awesome puppetry and robotry. I'm not embarassed to say I like it. And I got her into Six Feet Under, a fair trade. I think we're all three also going soon to see some musical that is not Wicked, and the tickets are cheaper.

Things are really starting to clean themselves up at Sunlight Africa. I'm coming into more responsibilities from my supervisor, and I'm beginning to bond more with my co-workers. (Though I still need to get this required time limit figgered out.) He left early on Wednesday and it was up to me to keep a good portion of the class busy for a good portion of an hour. As a result, I'm starting to, and learning to, contain the class more effectively. (Is contain even the right word? That means to be, the kids are responding to us in a more positive form. Contain? Not control, certainly.) This all might be because my boss hasn't been in the office for the last three weeks...

But I did find a quicker way home, cutting almost thirty minutes off of my commute. (Red Line -- Wilson to Jackson, 6X to 51st & Lake Park Ave.!) That makes the ride so much less stressful that I don't have to worry about whether or not there will be a 10-40 minutes wait for the bus home.

A good portion of the Albion College Mud Hens (my IM team) who aren't in the Chicago Center, came to visit us this weekend. We took them around Hyde Park and Chinatown. Like when I visited Kiesel last weekend, I'm kind of struggling with my existence back in Albion.

Can you really compare Big City Chicago to Small Town Albion? What am I even comparing?

Our friends were talking about the new president and classes and gossip and Facebook and Freshmen, stuff I haven't been around for.

I'm out of the loop.

I think I'm secretly afraid that everything and everyone there is going to have moved on without me. I think Tyler's going to New York City in the spring.

Also, Cleveland is up 2-1 over the Yankees. I think the New York Yankees are one disgustingly self-aggrandizing, self-contradicting, self-inflicted wound on the inner-thigh of major league sports... but I won't go into that. (And I think the Cubs are just as bad, but just one step below the Red Sox. I'll go into this later, after the World Series.)

That's The News From Lake Wobegon Where The Women Are Strong, The Men Are Good Looking, And The Children Are Above Average,

Steve

J. Edgar Hoover's Revelation

Dear Blogger,

Things haven't been busy or slow around here. I just kept forgetting to do stuff. I'm very far behind on some class work I need to get done.

All of a sudden, I started getting some subtle hints that I do have a life outside of Chicago. Here's some:

• I've been contacted in a number of ways by vague friends asking where I am, and why I'm not doing certain things at Albion.
• I have to send in an absentee ballot for voting in Oberlin.
• Inconsequentially, in the third largest city in the country, I can't find a single post office or stamps.
• The Indians are starting the playoffs tomorrow. Of course, the one year they broadcast the games on TBS is the one year I don't have access to TBS.
• I like Ohio.
• I went to see Kiesel in the Ukrainian Village on Saturday, and it made me realize that Albion is about 181 miles away, and that's where my friends are. And it makes me realize I need to do a better job of keeping in touch with them while I'm away...

I need to get going on stuff.

Stay Cool,

Steve