I started painting again this week. It's been years since I last did. Here's where I am at so far: The process. The image is inspired by a photo by khaaan. In the end it will actually have less detail than it does now. I want it to be atmospheric and minimal, but I believe to do it right, you have to build up before you take away. It's oil on birch ply. It feels good to paint. I feels like something that I am supposed to do.
I usually try not to encourage people to pursue art...but that painting is almost haunting. It reminds me of some snowy photos I once saw online. They depict that feeling of isolation so damn well.
Thanks. I hope to infuse it with more emotion before it's finished. I'm interested in where representation and emotion meet. I am a fan of tonalism, and less so of impressionism. Not that I dislike impressionism, but I find much of it to be emotionally flat (Monet, Manet, Renoir). I wonder if that was a sign of the times when it first evolved. So pastoral. In a good Michigan winter, you can get days where the wind and snow isolates you. It's dusk at 5PM, and the sun doesn't break through the clouds for days. Some people love summer all year round. Not me. Why is that?I usually try not to encourage people to pursue art...
"Why is that?" ;) just havin a laugh. Thanks for the insight.
Once again, I am late to the pub. Pubski story #1 Actually from earlier this week. I was walking in my neighbourhood today. I didn't like moving to this city and always wanted to go back to my previous town, but today tasted like fall and the neighbourhood seemed neighbourly. It's full of interesting Victorian houses and trees. It's semi-gentrified in parts and public housing other parts. I love the multi-cult of the 'hood. Today, for the first time, I imagined myself actually staying here. Ahead of me, two large, black guys were walking. They were stopping and looking at houses and talking about the neighbourhood. I started walking a little closer to them to try and hear what they were saying. As I got closer, they stopped talking. Then they stopped walking. They parted, one stepping onto the curb. They wanted me to get past them. I thought, "Wow, that's what I would do if strangers were walking close behind me. I'd be a little nervous and wait for them to pass. Maybe they're afraid of me. I know I'm only 5'4", but I have my high-heel, suede black boots. I can kick ass." I said, "Hey, what's up? Why are you stopping? I wasn't going to attack you or anything." They said, "Oh, we're not afraid of you. We thought you just wanted to go more quickly." "Oh," I said head down, face reddening, a little disappointed. We all laughed and talked about the neighbourhood. But I did point out to them how weird it felt for them to want me to pass. (Thanks to eightbitsamurai for vetting my story.)
Finally went out hiking in the mountains! Got my next programming assignment yesterday, and spent the rest of the day and evening working on it. I really enjoy puzzling it all out. Also, I learned how to use Github yesterday because of this awesome student pack, so you can follow my muddling along in Python in my public repo. I think I should be more proactive in looking for friends here - most of the people I know are only on a superficial/acquaintance level. It gets quite lonely here at times.
Great spot for a sticker. Could you please check to see if you can add it to this map? http://goo.gl/XoBTSG I am not sure if I have the permissions set up right.
Anyone see the total lunar eclipse this morning? For well-situated observers (those at high elevation on the East Coast of North America), it was an opportunity to make a rare sighting of a selenelion event, in which both the eclipsed moon and rising sun are visible at the same time for a few minutes. I woke up a bit before six and saw the moon was about two-thirds occulted. I grabbed the binoculars I had thoughtfully set out the night before, but thoughtlessly neglected to remove from the case. I performed a torturous slow-motion Velcro disengagement, amazed at how noisy the process is. I gazed from bed through the window a while, then went out to the balcony to enjoy the display while early-morning commuters got on their way below. Astronomical phenomena trigger a deep psychological response in me, so watching Melancholia was like having a waking dream, and Return of the Native is among my favorites. I attribute this fascination to having been awakened in the dead of night as a child by my dad, who walked me out to the front yard in the cold and pointed out a blood red eclipsed moon. Timeanddate provided a handy table of localized timings, and totality was scheduled for 6:24. About ten minutes before that, I crept up to the sleeping boy and held his foot until he stirred. He opened his eyes and we had this conversation: "Do you want to see something?" "Yes!" Kids are the best. We stopped for a potty break and to put on his jacket, then went to the chilly balcony barefoot. We watched while the illuminated part of the moon got smaller and smaller until the whole disk was a dim red. By that time he was cold and scrambled back to bed and under the covers. A lunar eclipse is a relatively slow-developing thing, compared to the excitement of a total solar eclipse, which I have not yet witnessed despite being in Paris for the apocalyptic August 1999 event. (Check your calendar for one coming soon to a continent near you!) I passed the time as we do now, messing with my phone. Twitter was sputtering with updates and amateur photos. I tried to take a photo, first with digital zoom and then through the binoculars, just to see. As dawn broke, the sky lightened and the moon became faint. I couldn't see to the east anyway, but don't think I was high enough to perceive the syzygy of the moon, earth and sun in alignment. I watched as the moon faded and descended toward a rooftop across the street, until it was the faintest wisp of an arc in the binoculars, and finally became a round patch of sky where I knew the moon was.
Loving that second picture. My wife and I tried to catch it by setting an alarm but completely failed, succumbing entirely to sleep. If I had a child I think that would have been enough motivation to have broken through the haze, but a warm sleepy wife just didn't help the situation :)
I saw it too! Here's my photos from 3:55am-4:00am (taken with my dying iPhone 5s). Then we went back to sleep. 
Nice shots, in a challenging context. Some wag on Twitter complained that iOS 8 was supposed to have an eclipse photography mode. It always seems like a chore to set up the whole rig, but then I usually regret not having done so after an event like this.
insomniasexx, you saw it, right? I watched as the moon faded and descended toward a rooftop across the street, until it was the faintest wisp of an arc in the binoculars, and finally became a round patch of sky where I knew the moon was.
That is quite the description!
I feel like shit, and I've had a week to match. The job search continues. I plan on moving to the DC area next year, and I need some sort of work experience in an office before I move out there, otherwise I'm going to be boned. I've been to staffing agencies, applied to administrative assistant and other low-level clerical jobs (what few there are here in Rural Illinois), and gotten no luck. I've got awards and recommendations from my previous job history, the staffing agencies are always impressed, but nothing. On top of that unwanted feeling, I tried again to talk to a particular friend last night. It's been about four months since actually had a conversation. Last one we had wasn't strange or odd in any way. I send a quick "What's up" about a month ago and got no reply, and did the same thing last night. I hate how Facebook handles messages. I end up refreshing, waiting for the "Seen" status, but it never comes. I don't know what I did wrong, but apparently I can't talk to him, which sucks since I've spent the better part of the year trying to figure out how to. A weird thought, given he spent the last year or two telling me I could talk to him any time, and trying to show me how friends actually communicate. I'm tired. Unwanted by the majority of my friends and apparently every employer within a drivable hour radius. On an unrelated note, I want to rewrite the last four seasons of the West Wing.
Have you talked to _refugee_ about helping you with your cover letter / resume / etc? Also, this may or may not apply to you, but people don't hire people based on awards and experience and your resume. They do...but they really don't. Those things will get you the interview and be tangible reasons for them to hire you. But the real reason people hire people is much more subjective. Things like, "is this person going to make my life easier?" "Is this person going to fit in with the culture?" "Is this person going to be a fun / happy / good energy person to be around in the office?" "Do I want to see this person every day?" "Is there enough work for them to do?" "Is hiring this person going to create more work for me?" When I was looking for my first big-girl job, my dad said, "They aren't hiring you to use a program, they are hiring you so they don't have to spend the time doing XYZ. Make sure you make their life easier and they know you are on their team." The line I use the most to score jobs is, "I'm really just here to experience new things and make your life easier and hopefully help [company]or[person] [grow][do better][be more efficient][bring in new business]. I'm not picky about what I work on. What's going to help you most?" The other thing you can try, especially for entry level, is reach out to family / friends / facebook people / etc. Entry level positions usually get like 1000+ resumes sent in. Find a way around the resume pile. Most offices can always use an extra hand but the process of hiring someone is a bitch. From posting the job, to sorting through resumes, to interviewing, to hiring, to training, to hoping they work out in the company, to insurance and payroll and everything else, it's just a fucking bitch. So even if the place doesn't have a post up, they may have work. Shoot an email to family / friends and ask if they know of any offices who could use an assistance / manager / etc. Keep it super short and don't talk about yourself / your experience at all - just provide a link to your updated linkedin either right at the end or even in your signature. If they want to know your experience, they can click. Also, go on your facebook and use the search bar and type in "friends who work in [town name]" or "friends who work at [x company]" or "friends who are office managers". Then shoot them a message asking if they know if their company is hiring / if they know of work. It actually works better if you don't know the person super well. People like to help people. BUT! Before you do it, delete anything on your facebook that makes you look bitter or irresponsible or douchey. Even if it's an inside joke, just delete it. Then post a couple things that makes you look good and like someone you would want to help. Something like a nice photo of you and your family, "Just found this photo of my wonderful birthday dinner with the family. It was so great to see everyone again." or "Big shoutout to my friend [NAME] who just [won something, did something cool, etc.]. So proud/happy/thrilled for you!" Damn that's a lot of text. I'm putting off work, obviously. Good luck! Keep your head up!
My problem isn't really qualification or job history - I've had plenty of jobs before and fairly long-term as well. One of the issues is community. I'm looking for clerical or administrative, anything that will give me office experience. The best I have right now are the multiple newspapers I've worked on and run at one point or another. But, no one's hiring anything like that here. In fact, very little of that even exists here. There are no office-based companies, other than single-practice law offices, that I can think of, and I've lived here for over ten years. I live in a town of just under 5000 people (an 'everybody knows everybody' type town), outside a town outside a town. There are two types of jobs you can have here: 1. Farmer
2. Factory Worker The law offices I've been applying to, often with personal connections and references on both sides from a long-term friend and "Village Clerk" (a city job) aren't hiring because they're simply not big enough to need any help. Several of them are one man bands with a secretary. I actually called one office the other day, who's been practicing here for something like 15 or 20 years, and he didn't even have a secretary - and wouldn't hear out any sort of interest or questions. The factories have some offices, but most of the administration is handled elsewhere. For instance, I just got off the phone this morning with the HR Director of the biggest factory here in town - a headlight and pedal manufacturer. I worked there before as a temp and built up a pretty good repertoire with the Plant Engineer, the HR Director (who's sister had me in class when I was a small child), and the Plant Manager's assistant (a woman who insisted on flirting with me at every possible encounter). The HR Director was surprised to even hear someone ask about an office job. What they need, they get out of the local high school in the form of unpaid co-op students who show up two hours in the afternoon. As a result, I've been branching out my search to include the three nearest "slightly bigger" towns - the biggest of which is only barely over 10,000 people. They're over an hour's drive away, and even they don't have anything very promising. I'm about to call another law office, this one bigger. I was directed there from a local branch, but was told pretty blatantly that they "don't really need anything." I always hesitate to complain about job seeking because I always get the same advice, and all of it would be useful if I lived in an area that had hundreds of people that actually sent in resumes. But I'm in an area where staffing agencies do have power. Every factory here hires exclusively through them, and everywhere else that isn't Wal-Mart is too small to afford additional employees. I've asked friends about jobs locally or places who could potentially use some help, but aside from the village clerk I mentioned, they're at a complete loss. The town is just small. The area around it, in all directions for hours, is corn and soybeans. I'm not ungrateful, I appreciate the advice. But I've been at this for so long, and had the help of so many people, that I'm all but positive that I'll end up working in a factory for the next forty years before I get drunk one night and step in front of the one train route that passes through here.
You got to get the hell out of that town however you can. What you say reminds me of York, Pennsylvania, where my brother lived for a while. The only jobs were factories and he hated them. I remember he worked in a kitty litter plant for some time. I'm pretty sure that time is one of the dullest, greyest times of his life. The town was depressing even just as a visitor - interesting, in the way that I find small towns to be, but clearly not a succeeding small town. Just save up money and go. I realize we're talking about how you're having difficulty finding a good job so that's not the most easy advice to follow right now but seriously. As little money as you think you can go on, and go.
Yes, I've always been struggling to get out. I lived in Chicago for the year previous. I only returned to my little town because I got fucked over by the University's student aid department, and I was extremely ill (I was positive I was dying - intense pain all over my torso, constant vomiting, couldn't eat anything, intense pain in my back - could only bear it in searing hot showers). I got forced into coming back. I'm here for a year, saving as much as I can so I can move East.
I've unblocked and unmuted you just now. Life is too short. Staffing agencies have no power. Find a company that looks interesting, figure out who you'd be working for at that company, and appeal to them directly. It's been 10+ years since I was on the job market (in the land of TPS reports, anyway) but the statistic put forth at the time was that roughly 5% of jobs are filled by something other than referral. Introduce yourself to people who aren't hiring. Be friendly and attentive. somebody will eventually give you a conduit to a job that hasn't been advertised yet. Good luck.
This is good advice CashewGuy. Reach out to people who are not hiring, ask if you can have 15 minutes of their time just to seek advice about the industry they are in. Let them know that you are young and about to enter the job market and you know that they are a leader in their industry… Etc. When you ask for advice you tend to get opportunities. When you ask for opportunity you tend to get advice. Good luck!
Going to NY for thanksgiving this weekend :D Should be fun, anybody wants to meet up for coffee? Also, I'm going to see the doctor today and he'll (hopefully) take me off the pills I've been taking for the past 6 years. Soon that epilepsy thing will be behind me.
Any chance you'll be in or around West village/columbia university(morningside heights)/harlem/lincoln center?
I'm down! There are some absolutely amazing coffee spots all around my music school's neighborhood from hipster to high-end (125th&broadway down to like 100th), I mean it's pretty easy to get around Manhattan via subway so we can meet downtown as well. I wonder if anyone else is in town.
Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy New York, will you be in NYC? Also, good luck with the doctor, that's a long time to be on medication, I bet you're sick of it. My neighbor's daughter just had several bad seizures and they're putting her on a bunch of medications. She's having insomnia etc and she's no longer able to drive etc. It sounds difficult and scary, I hope you get some good news elizabeth!
Yes NYC. Just came back from the doctor, I'll be pill free in a month :D And working on finishing my driving classes. The no driving definitely sucked, by now most of my friends have a license and it s a bit shitty to have to ask my parents whenever i need to go somewhere the public transport doesn't go. But eh, at least I'm never designated driver.
This happened to my roommate. Had a huge seizure in his sleep. He understandably wasn't a big fan of sleeping from then on. Also he couldn't drive for six months, or drink. It was a shitty experience, and the doctors never figured out why it happened. He's lucky he only had one, and it never recurred, and now he can ignore it. But shit.
I've stuck with this T25 exercise thing for 5 weeks now. I missed 2 days while at the wedding, but I did yoga one of those days, so that counts for something, otherwise I've done these videos 5 days a week. My goal is to lose weight and feel better. I've lost about 6 pounds thus far and I have about 12-15 more to go. I certainly feel better. I really do recommend it for those that are crunched for time. It's only 25 minutes a day and it's intense enough to have an impact. I was skeptical at first. On an unrelated note, BASS SOLO!
For my 38th birthday, I promised myself I'd get to buy a longboard if I was under 200 lbs. I'm half a pound away from being under 190 for my 40th. Kind of offsets the recent discovery that veen was born after I graduated from high school. It's funny. Idiot teenagers are definitely ruining Reddit. 'round here? We have a surprising number of erudite, well-spoken and interesting people who are half my age or less. I think that's a promising development - proof that idiots do as idiots do and that really, age has fuckall to do with it.
I'd have to go even later. I only heard about 9/11 a while after, but I'm pretty sure I knew about the Iraq War. I definitely "supported" Kerry in 2004 (one of two in my Kindergarten class to do so: the other guy liked him because they were both called John). But the earliest geopolitical event I remember caring about and really following in depth? You might have to go as late as the Arab Spring for that.
Happy birthday old man, you've got me by a couple of years. Well done regarding the weight loss goal. I bet at 40 you will feel better and have more energy than a younger KB had. That's awesome stuff. You'll actually be able to keep up with your daughter, which is important. I recently saw some old friends at a wedding, and one of them was telling me that her father, he was always older then the rest of the dads, is now 82 years old. That said, he probably has more energy than most of our fathers. The guy still rollerblades and has a girlfriend 10 years younger than him. -though it's hard to suggest he's robbing the cradle with a 72 year old. These bodies of ours are amazing things if we let/help them be. Like you, I am encouraged by the young crew here on Hubski and how impressive they are. I know that I sure was not at their age. Aside: Thanks again for the book!
Happy Birthday, mix-master. :) Thank you for taking the time to post here. I'd be markedly stupider without the wisdom smack-downs you kindly bestow within these pages of Hubski.
Happy birthday old man. Thanks for all of your help, conversations, collaborations and comradery over the years. I'll raise a glass to you tonight! Hope it's a good day. You've done well, keep it going!
shhhh Get through the first 5 days of Alpha and I'll give you the calendar for it. Bascially, you have 1 month of Alpha before you can graduate to "beta". So, once I know you are serious, I'll share the calendar. But don't waste my time punk. :) Edit: The calendars for Alpha and Beta are there. Use them.
Keep at it for 4 weeks, then shift to Beta. Honestly, it's not tougher, it's just different. I did "Dynamic Core" today. Yesterday, I did Ript Circuit, easily my favorite of them all. I send a picture to my friend that is also doing it, every day to prove I did it. I have to say though, I'm feeling FAR stronger and more fit than I did a month and a half ago. It's working. Keep at it!
First, I'm making cookies for other people too (my co-workers). (This is my defense.) Second, ain't nobody who don't like cookies. My third line of defense is that, theoretically, I would just bring a really good friend cookies too. I mean, it's not like it's going to be obvious, or anything, right? ...right?
Jesus, if I knew it was that easy I would have been dating everyone in high school. But I also have zero social skills, and had zero social skills at the time, so when a girl legit baked me a WHOLE FUCKING CAKE for me and me alone after I got really sick one time I didn't even stop to question whether that was a sign of affection. So you know what, _refugee_, it might not be obvious at all.
I'm with you on the nuts in cookies/brownies thing. I know they add texture, but some things just don't need texture. Why not go with some spanish fly?
I stomped about in kleinbl00's old stomping grounds this weekend. Northern New Mexico is a beautiful place, the real gateway to the west. Did you know aspens are the only North American tree with full east to west coverage? (Canada.) The fall color itself was hit and miss around Chama, Taos, etc, but the hits were hits. And the surrounding scenery set this apart from my usual fall trip, which is to the Ozarks. Next year I think I'm going to go all in and head up to New Hampshire, unless I just go back to NM and take the Cumbres to Toltec train. Brought hubski stickers in a sincere attempt to stick them somewhere nice, but never found the right spot. I'm very stingy with my stickers.
Slowly succumbing to coffee. Been avoiding it for ages cause I didn't want to get hooked, now I'm drinking at least a cup daily, often two. Now it's on to avoiding energy drinks. Please, teachers, let me sleep. Let me freakin sleep.
I started two weeks ago! Only drink a (small) cup on days where I could use some more concentration. Often only a bit of sugar. So far I quite like it, I'm starting to enjoy the taste. Most of the coffee around campus is Tim Hortons or Seattle shit, but yesterday I found a coffee place that has both good coffee and nice prices.
Oh don't get me wrong, i love the taste and there's this specific Starbucks (don't hate me) blend called Sumatra that will rock your socks-- drink enough and you'll be rocking in your socks too. I just didn't want to get in the cycle of having to keep drinking coffee. However I'm kind of in a 'fuck it' state where I realize the calming effects of not caring. <clinks coffee mug>
Hah, toldja! Oddly enough I think I might've gotten used to it or something and it stopped tasting good(?) Don't want to instill any stigma though, it's solid. There might be an "Aged" Sumatra reserve that is better, not sure though. Also works with any creamer, I highly higgghllly suggest Bailey's mudslide, and I say this as someone who takes my coffee black. Enjoy, my jittery sleepless friend.
Pick a vice and go with it. I'm down with coffee. I default to 2 cups a day but when I'm in the shit that's 4-6. Noting that "cups" are "mugs full" not the pussilanimous measure that coffee "cups" are because if we're judging by that, I default to 4 cups but when I'm in the shit it's more like 12.
Pst, minus the crazy bright LEDs on the back (Which you can unplug if you take it apart), this mouse is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Had some major setbacks this past weekend but things continue to move forward I guess. Planning a large concert next month and prepping for an interview or two. I'm also sitting in biochem right now, which is easily my favorite course this semester.
Back story: We had a party this past weekend. Too many people have been making me anxious lately. Was going fine but I somehow ended up in a conversation with a group involving an x where she brought up how she wasn't interested in a person who asked her out and was interested in someone else which was a really weird thing for me to be involved with. Then later I ended up in a really bad conversation with someone else where I strained no fewer than two relationships, left my own apartment for the night, almost hurt myself, and emailed the therapist to tell him I wouldn't be returning to group sessions and asking about 1on1 or resources in the area for that. Maybe this last thing was a bit unreasonable. Things haven't really got better though. He has not yet returned my email.
When I went to the school shrink in undergrad they basically were like "your issues sound like they are outside of the scope of what we can do" and referred me to outside counsel. It's very possible they can at least point you in the right direction and I hope they do so.
Hopefully he emails me back. I only went to two sessions, but it became very clear to me that positive psychology would only treat the symptoms, not the problems, and even that was pushing it. This was Sunday morning when I reached out to him. I don't want to call or go back there and have to explain all this. So now I'm just sitting on Hubski, trying to make a decision on doing something, anything, to get me out of here. I'd love to go running but I've had about 1200 calories today so 3 miles is probably a bad idea. Edit: The first paragraph also defeats the entire fucking purpose of me going here, which is that I can't afford to drop $50 a session elsewhere, and I don't want my family finding out which is what will happen if this goes through any sort of healthcare since I'm on my families plan. I'm so mad just thinking about either of those things when I pay so much money to go here.
1) Some shrinks will let you pay on a sliding scale dependent upon your income level, etc. I don't know how common this is but it is something to try and pursue if it's possible. You can disclose that you don't have familial support and they might be able to knock it down to $20 or something. I also once had one who would be flexible about when I paid - she would rather me come at all than have me not come simply because I couldn't pay for that meeting that day. 2) Yeah. I tried out a shrink once who was all about positive affirmations. That was her big/first/main proposed "solution." I did not stay with her long. I agree that positive self-talk is good but negative self-talk was not the root of my issues.
1) That's good to know but also sounds like a lot of work just to maybe possibly go see someone and then still pay 1/2 my weekly income which puts a damper on groceries and the gas to actually get to and from. 2) Yeah except a good deal of my problems are from negative self-talk as a result of a lot of different things but I really, really don't buy into positive affirmations and don't think that a group therapy session is the way to get me to even start to consider them.
I think we are basically in agreement about part 2: the negative self-talk stems from deeper issues which must be resolved, simply reversing the self-talk is in a way just not lying/communicating with the self emotions and feelings and beliefs which are there whether or not one looks in the mirror and says "I am a good person of value" 15 times a day. In a way the proscribed positive self-talk actually covers up the problems that need solving because it's a superficial solution to a deeper problem.
I am back home and as usual its very turbulent. Knowing that I will only be here for 3 weeks means that I want to meet as many people as possible, so I have been traveling around. Heading to Jerusalem for a few days in an hour :) After about 8 years of not doing so, I helped my father to slaughter the lamb that we bought. It felt weird. Not because I was killing a lamb (which is a discussion for itself) but because I was used to work in sterile conditions. In the lab we work with mice. I am used to do everything in this sterile and clean place. And here, we let the lamb bleed out on the ground and then hanged it from a door and took it apart, which felt like anatomy class all over again. I don't know if you have ever eaten fresh cooked lamb (no water, only lamb fat, salt and pepper) but its one of the most delicious and barbaric looking food to eat :D
Todd-AO was a giant of the post-production industry. They had their own aspect ratio, for fuck's sake. Kid I grew up with had an uncle who worked there on shit like Star Wars. He was a hero. Soundelux was another giant of the post-production industry. They were huge. In 2008, Todd AO and Soundelux were merged into Todd-Soundelux. That's when the guys I know got bumped over from the UK to the United States. 6 months ago they went bankrupt. 3 months ago they shut their doors and locked everybody out. Yesterday they started selling off all their shit. It's funny. I'm preapproved for $20k worth of purchases. If I won everything I bid on I'd be out roughly $60k, but I'd be sitting on top of $300k of eBayable assets. But because it's Todd-Soundelux, chuckleheads are bidding shit above Fleabay prices. So watching the auction, which I've been doing out of the corner of my eye, has been more spectacle than anything else. Although I did miss a rippin' deal on a DSP4000 by like $27. Fortunately, they have eight more. TL;DR today I'm probably not buying an even dozen TC System 6000s
My first few weeks of my masters have been very busy. There's a lot reading and analyses to do, not to mention recording and composition. It's a nice feeling being in an environment where you're respected ad a peer and someone with worthwhile input. Undergraduate feels like you're being taught, whereas postgrad is more of an exploratory learning process. Great fun but a crazy about of work.
Today, I was cycling to work and feeling something like Miss Gulch (the wicked witch) on her bicycle: all constrained by the demands and restrictions of her self-importance. Then I remembered that at the end of that scene, Toto pops his head out of the basket, looks around, and jumps out.
Toto escaping Miss Gulch represented my own creativity and imagination escaping through any back door available. I told the class this story and Toto's bid for freedom seemed to be the dominant metaphor of the rest of the class.