Indecision 2011

[evilhippo]

Just a few random things. In re: my flailing around about not being sure how I feel about Occupy Wall Street got tidied up quite nicely by (oddly) the Planet Money podcast about the movement, in which they explain it's more about having a forum than being or asking for anything specific. (It's also a great exercise in what difference a

Comments

[look_alive]

I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOUUUU! I mean, the grad school thing. You deserve so much better than your shitty job, WE ALL KNOW IT, but just. Yeah. I'm really happy for you that you're starting to look into this stuff. You're already doing a hell of a lot more than I ever did. All I did was read a fanfic that made me mad enough in its inaccuracy that I remembered what I wanted to do with my life and threw myself full-force at Loyola. I... wish that was hyperbolic in some way.

DO IT DO IT DO IT! The teaching thing sounds really cool, actually, and who's to say that'd stop you from doing journalism at some point? The Inner City Teaching Corps sounds pretty cool, actually.

[evilhippo]

Ahh... yeah, I tend to overthink and overplan things. I think, before I decide on something (which I really want to have decided before year's end) I'm going to have to suck it up and go down the UofC, since they finally offer relevant counseling and goshdarnit, they owe it to me at this point.

I'm really leaning toward the ICTC, actually. It seems pretty perfect for what I want to do, as far as teaching here goes. But I'm still caught up in thinking I should at least try to do the journalism thing... if I can come up with a way to do it without having to borrow $80k, because that's an awful lot just to try something.

[apple_pathways]

Grad school! Oh, the horror, the hor--

Nevermind. :P

So which program do you think you're leaning toward?

All fests! Yay! I am doing dwsanta, and will be doing sherlockmas (natch), yuletide, and whatever we come up with over at pulped_fictions. (Which is why I am not allowed to sign up for anything else, either!)

My aunt and uncle are going to be in New York this weekend so my uncle can attend the seminar of this Buddhist monk he really likes (forget the name) and they're very excited to take part in the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. (They're huge activists.) Sometimes I think theirs is the family I should have been born into. :P

[evilhippo]

I'm torn. I will probably continue to be torn. Journalism is what I really want to do (because I can't just hole up in my tiny apartment and make up multimedia stories about alternate universe Chicago or something), but I know deep down that I'd be far from unhappy if I was teaching here. I'm just very aware of the fact that I'm treating it like my fallback plan, and I feel like if I'm going to go into something where I'm dealing with the futures of fledgling people, I should be a little more serious about it. So... I need to work through my unrequited issues with journalism and public radio in some way, first (which may just involve me going to the UofC, talking to the shiny new journalism counselor they have there, and finally having someone confirm that the chances of me getting into public radio are slim even with an 80-thousand-dollar journalism degree). As soon as I can eliminate the "maybe" about those particular pipe dreams, I think I'll probably be enrolling in the ICTC, if they'll take me.

I got my assignment for dwsanta this

[jobey_in_error]

and I feel like if I'm going to go into something where I'm dealing with the futures of fledgling people, I should be a little more serious about it

The very fact that you have that attitude means that you will do less harm and more good on average than most of the teachers I ever had. (Also, having looked at all those teaching programs in the Chicago area two years ago, I felt sympathy and amusement and deep waves of agreement during your account. Screw UofC... Northwestern seems to have it together, though.)

But anyway, I am certainly not suggesting you abandoning your dreams. Lots of luck with proceeding. You already have your essay topic, what with your passionate questions about digital media! (I am sure that the admissions council has somewhat longer attention span and more nuanced outlook than the random people who get stuck on fair night duty.)

[zweiundzwei]

FWIW, I think it's always useful checking out protests that are nearby even if you aren't sure how you feel about them. It tends to be a great demonstration on just how much media spins their stories. My most impressive experience of sloppy journalism was sitting in the front rows of the Block G8 protests in Germany sharing a pallet of nutella with the people around me (and being a total nervous wreck, lol) and reading about us building Molotov cocktails right this minute in the local newspaper

[evilhippo]

I think my issue with these protests has been that I'm too close to them. I get all the annoyances (the drumming, the shouting, the stare-downs, the random (and expensive) bicycle vandalism) without much of the message. On the whole, they've come across a lot better in the media (once the media got around to covering it, and ignoring the guy that punched a police officer a few days ago) than they have to me personally. In fact, there are a few women that got arrested for throwing the garbage that had accumulated in the yard of a foreclosed home into the Bank of America headquarters. I'd like to give each of them a high-five (I think their age range was 50-75. There's something about righteous older women getting themselves arrested that lends legitimacy and charm to a protest). They may have been a part of Take Back Chicago, though... which is a teacher's union and service worker's union combined protest that is more or less about the same things (probably because the Occupy Chicago protesters have proven kind of immature. As

money ramble

[zweiundzwei]

I'm totally rooting for those women