Thursday, April 26, 2007
Another point to my growing hatred of academia
It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that my feelings toward the academia have been going downhill for the last two years. I have my own list of reasons, mostly based on pragmatism vs. head-in-the-clouds ideology, but now I have another.
Apparently MIT's dean of admissions has been ordered to resign because she falsified her resume in 1979. Nineteen-fucking-seventy-nine. Seriously?!? According to the chancellor of MIT it's because the institution is founded on the basis of trust and integrity. Never mind that she's held this position for 28 years. Never mind that she's teamed up with pediatricians to tame the college admissions process via writing books for parents on how NOT to stress the hell out of their children during the process. Never mind that she signed letters to kids "your mom away from mom," to make the transition easier. Never mind that NOBODY realized she did not in fact hold a master's degree because she's actually intelligent all on her own.
At 55 years old, one of the sweetest ladies in academia is being ousted from her position because she doesn't have a master's degree. This is one of those very few positions where the government knows how to handle this sort of thing. Fucking lie about it! If she's done good enough for 28 years to land the respect of the entire profession of college admission officers, let her keep her job. Cover it up. Spin it. Who really cares? What principle are we standing for? The not-lying-on-resume principle?
I think this is why nobody in any company I have ever talked to has stressed academic eduction. Google comes close, but even they stress practicality. I strongly feel there should be a rule that when you've done something extremely successfully for 25+ years you get an automatic master's degree in whatever it is you do. But no, not in academia. There you get a big "fuck you" despite everything you've done and all the lives you have enhanced, because what's on paper, and entirely in the realm of concept, is more important. It's rooted in principle.
Apparently MIT's dean of admissions has been ordered to resign because she falsified her resume in 1979. Nineteen-fucking-seventy-nine. Seriously?!? According to the chancellor of MIT it's because the institution is founded on the basis of trust and integrity. Never mind that she's held this position for 28 years. Never mind that she's teamed up with pediatricians to tame the college admissions process via writing books for parents on how NOT to stress the hell out of their children during the process. Never mind that she signed letters to kids "your mom away from mom," to make the transition easier. Never mind that NOBODY realized she did not in fact hold a master's degree because she's actually intelligent all on her own.
At 55 years old, one of the sweetest ladies in academia is being ousted from her position because she doesn't have a master's degree. This is one of those very few positions where the government knows how to handle this sort of thing. Fucking lie about it! If she's done good enough for 28 years to land the respect of the entire profession of college admission officers, let her keep her job. Cover it up. Spin it. Who really cares? What principle are we standing for? The not-lying-on-resume principle?
I think this is why nobody in any company I have ever talked to has stressed academic eduction. Google comes close, but even they stress practicality. I strongly feel there should be a rule that when you've done something extremely successfully for 25+ years you get an automatic master's degree in whatever it is you do. But no, not in academia. There you get a big "fuck you" despite everything you've done and all the lives you have enhanced, because what's on paper, and entirely in the realm of concept, is more important. It's rooted in principle.
Labels: academia
Monday, April 23, 2007
So beautiful...
Lately I've been watching movies that could best be described as "gut wrenching" or "emotionally disemboweling" in some way or another. About a week ago, after I got back from Philadelphia, I watched Takeshi Kitano's "Dolls." That was sort of like taking a melon baller to my heart. Heidi best described the movie as "having tendrils of visual metaphor to rip out your still-beating heart and show you how beautiful it is." A very fitting description for a movie that is essentially about the astonishingly self-natured qualities of love, but that we somehow forgive them because they are, in fact, in the name of love. If that movie had mantras they would be: "Guilt can hold even the most hollowed relationship together," "no matter how much we want the past, a lifetime of selfish wants cannot be undone," and "obsession of another is not a substitute for one's own life." Highly recommended.
Tonight I watched "Babel" by Alejandro González Iñárritu. The movie was exquisite. I've probably spent at least the last half-hour crying in my movie room. The title makes absolute sense by the time the movie is over. Cultural misunderstandings abound, whether it's the collision of neighboring countries or social groups clamoring for acceptance from their peers. Equally, it could be a treatise on the nature of despair and isolation that derives from cultural interaction. It's a small world after all? Somehow it makes me think of Serial Experiments Lain, but without the ubiquitous technology metaphor.
I'm going to attempt sleep now and hope that I don't have some seriously fucked up dreams.
Tonight I watched "Babel" by Alejandro González Iñárritu. The movie was exquisite. I've probably spent at least the last half-hour crying in my movie room. The title makes absolute sense by the time the movie is over. Cultural misunderstandings abound, whether it's the collision of neighboring countries or social groups clamoring for acceptance from their peers. Equally, it could be a treatise on the nature of despair and isolation that derives from cultural interaction. It's a small world after all? Somehow it makes me think of Serial Experiments Lain, but without the ubiquitous technology metaphor.
I'm going to attempt sleep now and hope that I don't have some seriously fucked up dreams.
Labels: movies
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Super Comfy Couch
I know I've had something of a hiatus from my blog over the last few weeks...trust me, I've been occupied with stuff. Here's a pretty great story though from yesterday.
So, several weeks ago I wandered into an Arizona Leather Company store and decided to check out what they had. Considering that they make some pretty premium furniture, I definitely was not anticipating purchasing something. After wandering around the store for a few minutes a really friendly guy helped me out and gave me the quick rundown of the showroom's layout and what was where. He then asked if their special had brought me in. Special? Apparently they were having a two week truck load sale of all their furniture as long as you purchased a specific type of leather on it. This piqued my interest because A) I needed a couch, B) their furniture is awesome, and C) dead cow hide is really comfortable.
How awesome of a sale was it? Sofas were $800 off and sectionals were up to $2,400 off...so, enough to entice me. I found one that I absolutely loved that was available in their Mesa leather with Navajo Butter as the color, thus it qualified for a $1200 discount making it reasonable. I went ahead and put a deposit down so I could have it delivered, only to find out that all their furniture is custom made to specifications, so I got to pick out which was the long side of the sectional, and which was the short, etc. The whole process takes six weeks from order to delivery.
--- Fast forward to delivery date ---
I take the afternoon off of work to receive my frickin' awesome new sectional. The delivery guys show up and I inform them that I'd like the couch in my upstairs entertainment room. The guy at the store told me that as long as I have standard sized door frames, which I do, that it wouldn't be a problem. They look at the stairs and have some serious qualms about whether or not my gigantar sectional is going to get upstairs.
They try the long piece first...lo and behold there is a small spot in my ceiling where it's about a foot lower than the rest of the house... which in turn means that my ceiling is about 3 inches too low at the foot of the stairs to stand it up. The corner is also too sharp for them to angle it in correctly.... fuck.
Boss-man is called and informed that they can't get the long piece up. They tell me that I can have a technician (yes, "technician" for furniture) come out and remove the arms and they can possibly squeeze it up there at my expense. Not so good. My other option is to have the couch sent back to California and have it re-segmented in the middle to make it a four-piece sectional. Not so good again. After a few moments of chatting they load it back onto the truck to store it in the warehouse so we can figure out what to do.
Ten minutes after they leave I get a call. They want to try and get the smaller eight foot segment upstairs, because if that gets up there they know for sure the other piece will because it happens to be eight feet without the arms. I let them back in and once again they start hauling stuff upstairs. This time they get to the second floor landing before they discover there isn't enough room to maneuver the couch to actually get it through the door. Double fuck.
The sectional comes BACK downstairs again. This time we reach the realization that the couch can't be re-segmented (because of additional factors) and even removing the arms will most likely be insufficient. I decide to have them set it up downstairs so I can at least enjoy it while we come to some kind of decision.
After a few hours I realize that my color choices go really well together downstairs. Now I'm considering just keeping it downstairs and officially making my upstairs couch the official downstairs couch.
I have to admit that I am considering a different Arizona Leather couch for upstairs...one much smaller that I know will easily navigate my narrow stairs. Either way, now I feel better about inviting people over since I have somewhere for them to sit.
So, several weeks ago I wandered into an Arizona Leather Company store and decided to check out what they had. Considering that they make some pretty premium furniture, I definitely was not anticipating purchasing something. After wandering around the store for a few minutes a really friendly guy helped me out and gave me the quick rundown of the showroom's layout and what was where. He then asked if their special had brought me in. Special? Apparently they were having a two week truck load sale of all their furniture as long as you purchased a specific type of leather on it. This piqued my interest because A) I needed a couch, B) their furniture is awesome, and C) dead cow hide is really comfortable.
How awesome of a sale was it? Sofas were $800 off and sectionals were up to $2,400 off...so, enough to entice me. I found one that I absolutely loved that was available in their Mesa leather with Navajo Butter as the color, thus it qualified for a $1200 discount making it reasonable. I went ahead and put a deposit down so I could have it delivered, only to find out that all their furniture is custom made to specifications, so I got to pick out which was the long side of the sectional, and which was the short, etc. The whole process takes six weeks from order to delivery.
--- Fast forward to delivery date ---
I take the afternoon off of work to receive my frickin' awesome new sectional. The delivery guys show up and I inform them that I'd like the couch in my upstairs entertainment room. The guy at the store told me that as long as I have standard sized door frames, which I do, that it wouldn't be a problem. They look at the stairs and have some serious qualms about whether or not my gigantar sectional is going to get upstairs.
They try the long piece first...lo and behold there is a small spot in my ceiling where it's about a foot lower than the rest of the house... which in turn means that my ceiling is about 3 inches too low at the foot of the stairs to stand it up. The corner is also too sharp for them to angle it in correctly.... fuck.
Boss-man is called and informed that they can't get the long piece up. They tell me that I can have a technician (yes, "technician" for furniture) come out and remove the arms and they can possibly squeeze it up there at my expense. Not so good. My other option is to have the couch sent back to California and have it re-segmented in the middle to make it a four-piece sectional. Not so good again. After a few moments of chatting they load it back onto the truck to store it in the warehouse so we can figure out what to do.
Ten minutes after they leave I get a call. They want to try and get the smaller eight foot segment upstairs, because if that gets up there they know for sure the other piece will because it happens to be eight feet without the arms. I let them back in and once again they start hauling stuff upstairs. This time they get to the second floor landing before they discover there isn't enough room to maneuver the couch to actually get it through the door. Double fuck.
The sectional comes BACK downstairs again. This time we reach the realization that the couch can't be re-segmented (because of additional factors) and even removing the arms will most likely be insufficient. I decide to have them set it up downstairs so I can at least enjoy it while we come to some kind of decision.
After a few hours I realize that my color choices go really well together downstairs. Now I'm considering just keeping it downstairs and officially making my upstairs couch the official downstairs couch.
I have to admit that I am considering a different Arizona Leather couch for upstairs...one much smaller that I know will easily navigate my narrow stairs. Either way, now I feel better about inviting people over since I have somewhere for them to sit.
