Halloween

Ford Dining Hall was in full Halloween spirit tonight at dinner. The prevailing theme was "The Wizard of Oz" and music from the archaic film poured out from the speakers. All of the stations were renamed to things such as "There's No Place Like Home" and a few more that I can't remember at the moment.

For the first time that I've ever witnessed, the blinds were completely shut in order to create a bit of a claustrophobic feel, and most of main lights were shut off leaving only the delightfully creepy decorative lights to dine under. The large steel columns were covered with sheets of construction paper that formed huge, mangled-looking trees that one would find in a haunted forest. They were actually pretty impressively good quality. I would like to post pictures, but I didn't have my camera with me today.

The food was all country-bumkin style with broccoli, cheese biscuits, baked potatoes, pumpkin pie, etc. Even the icecream sprinkles were orange and black pumpkins and bats.

I'm not sure what the other dining halls did in terms of Halloween spirit, but I was pretty impressed by Ford's work. I'm surprised that they let the employees dress up the way some of them did (eg. one girl wore a huge green cape; won't that thing blow into the food?) but it was fun. I'm not one to get worked up over holidays, ever, but I admit that it was a pretty cute setting.

oh, and have a great Halloween everyone!

Dammit, I forgot to make a title again

In HSSE, there are stand-ups at the computer terminals. These stand-ups explicitly banish you from consuming porn whilst on a computer in the middle of the library.

I must admit I've been amusing myself today by coming up with the various scenarios that could've led to the library making sure the sign was clear that porn was banned.

Copy Cards (or: Money grab at the expense of grad students)

I was just on my way over to the library to photocopy parts of a book, when I realized that there is an important public service announcement all library users should be aware of: In an effort to Robin Hood grad students out of the poorhouse and into the gutters, HSSE and probably other libraries are undergoing a conversion of their copy card system.

For those of you unfamiliar, copy cards work as such:

Put a dollar into the dispenser, get a card with $0.40 credit (presumably the $0.60 covers the cost of the card?). Then put that card in the little slot, and add more money, because although you can now make copies for $0.04 instead of a nickel like the common folk, $0.40 still isn't enough to copy much of anything at all. Tada!

So it's a convenience thing mostly, right? You can use the copy card to make copies without having to constantly drop in nickels, and the generous 20% discount on copies saves you a buck-fifty while you're at it. Which is nice, I guess.

Only now, since this system works perfectly, the libraries are changing their copy card system. Such is life in the bureaucracy. Even better, they have no plans to roll over balances from the old system! So in other words, if you load up your trusty copy card with a ten, when the new system rolls out, you are el-fucked-o.

Just a word to the wise.

And of course, if you want to get rid of your copy card now to make sure it doesn't go to waste, just toss it in the campus mail to Chuck Smith / SLHS and I'll make sure your balance finds a good home :)

Skipping classes? What's that?

It's the end of Week 9 and I have yet to skip one of my classes. I seriously think I can go the entire semester without skipping. Dude.

EDIT 10/29: This streak ended on October 25th due to injury--I fell up the HEAV steps last week, things got out of hand, etc. However, I intend on going to all my remaining class meetings this semester. I am studious. Or something.

EDIT 11/20: Skipped another one last Wednesday!

Wilco at Elliott Hall

[my apologies for this very late post; I just got around to finishing it]


Being at the stage/second row for the entire concert was absolutely amazing.

Even from the very beginning, the audience could tell that Jeff Tweedy wasn't feeling it. Wilco's usual energy and enthusiasm as personified in Tweedy seemed strangely lacking. When somebody in the front row yelled out "How are you?" he replied, "None of your business" and closed with a weak smile. The show was on Wednesday October 4 and Tweedy's mother passed away only five days earlier on Friday. At one point, he paused to say that he "didn't want to be here" which was both understandable as well as an insult to the audience.

The mood of the entire show was pretty laid back and the usual amount of rocking was less prevalent. They played a great number of oldies and showcased a good amount of the new material on their upcoming album. Seeing as how A Ghost is Born is my favorite Wilco album, I was especially entertained when they played "Hummingbird." Although on the set list, the eventual overlook of "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" was a bit disappointing. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" went well. The emotion displayed was phenomenal.

Seeing somebody of Nels Cline's age rock the guitar was pretty impressive. Drummer Ken Coomer gave it his all and it was good. Best of luck to those guys.

Diversity survey

This just in the INBOX, and right on cue:

The Social Research Institute at Purdue will be conducting a diversity
audit survey for the Office of the Vice President for Human Relations. In
the next week, you will be sent a link to an online survey that asks for your
opinions on several topics related to diversity climate at Purdue. This
survey is a follow up to the study conducted in fall, 2002.

Everyone at Purdue will be asked to participate in the survey. Most will be able to complete the survey in 20 minutes or less. Some may encounter difficulties due to
incompatible browsers and/or connection speed. Those encountering
difficulty with the internet version will be given an opportunity to participate
through a phone interview.

BREAKING NEWS: Exponent web site cracked

I first heard of this at 10:42am; at about 11:15am, http://www.purdueexponent.org was refusing connections. However, I totally got screenshots.



EDIT 10/7 17:00: http://www.purdueexponent.org now displays a maintenance message, but if you go to http://www.purdueexponent.com or http://www.purdueexponent.net you can see the hax0r's work.

EDIT 10/7 22:45: The .com and .net domains are now refusing connections.

Thoughts on diversity

OK, I was holding off until the end of the week to post my thoughts on diversity at Purdue and since today is the end of my week.. here goes!

I first thought of proposing the idea for people to post about diversity after seeing the word pop up in the headlines of the Exponent several times already throughout this short semester. I don't actually read the Exponent, so I'm not sure what the articles say but I do know this isn't the first time that I've heard that word come up. Is there a diversity problem at Purdue? Is there any more of a diversity problem here than there is anywhere else?

I've lived a fairly sheltered life growing up in a town of 21,000 and then living in various parts of Indianapolis. I've traveled to Miami and Chicago on numerous occasions. I've seen huge differences in the levels of diversity when comparing those two big cities to my small hometown. Judging from that, I think that Purdue lies somewhere between the two. It is a hundred times more diverse than almost 98% of the communities in the world. It's definitely not as diverse as the big cities. But, is that really to be expected?

I'm sitting outside of Stanley Coulter enjoying this beautiful fall day. I sat and watched people pass by for several minutes before turning on my laptop. I'd say out of all of the people that walked by, less than 25% of them were white. I'm going to look up...right now... 6 people walking by- two white women, an Asian female, two Asian males and one Western Asian(India area) male. Let's try it again in another minute...
OK, 4 people walking by, two black males, one black female and one white female.
And again (including people sitting and standing around) two white males, one white female, two Asian men, and a couple that appears to be from a "Latin-American" area- and, right as I was looking down a black male walking with two white females.

So, from that small sampling, I'd say that's pretty diverse. There was even an unusually large number of people from different backgrounds associating with each other.

Are all people treated the same? I would guess that once they reach college, they would be. I have heard charges of racism from black people and white people. I know a guy from India who says some TAs treat him unfairly but then he ends up with a 4.0 every semester.

Are all people recruited the same? Again, I don't know. Do they have the same financial ability to pay for school- I'm sure the answer is no. Do all people have the same educational opportunities before getting to school? Again, I know from my classes that answer is no. But, I also know that the College of Education is teaching their teachers to try to change that. Whether or not any of those graduates go teach in schools where the extra help is needed or not is yet to be seen. From what I've heard, probably not.
One last time before class... OK- we've got two Russian men talking right in front of me, there is a black guy with a HUGE afro, six white males (people are pouring out of WTHR), six white females, three Asian males and two Asian females, there's a group of four black guys and two black girls, five white males and three white females, another Asian male, two black females, another Asian male and female, two ROTC guys (white, of course), another Asian male and female, three white girls walking individually, a short white guy in a suit, followed by a fat white guy in a suit, another Asian guy, five sorority girls (white), an Asian girl and a white girl with two elementary aged white girls, a black guy....

Ha, I forgot to give this a title at first

So earlier, Ron wrote that he'd like to encourage us to post thoughts about diversity. I had several ideas in mind when I thought about it, and what follows is nothing like where I thought I would go, but it's what came out. Comments and discussion are always encouraged!

----------------------

Diversity. I really don't like the word, because it's taken on this meaning that it's something we have to "do". True diversity can come only through the attitudes and values of the people involved in a community. To talk about it like people do... really kind of bothers me.

One area of diversity I think Lafayette is remarkably strong in is food. True, there may not be internationally renowned restaurants here, and your favorites might be elsewhere. But for a metro area of 100,000 people in the middle of and extending into Cornfield, Indiana, we do pretty darn good. There's everything from very authentic Japanese (Heisei) to very creative pan-Asian restaurants (Bea One, Kokoro) -- even ones that are affordable and near campus (Kibu Cafe is one of my new favorites). I can't remember the name of that Korean grill out on 52 west of West Lafayette, but it's delicious. Can't forget the Thai (Basil Thai, Exotic Thai). El Rodeo and Little Mexcio bring us fantastic Mexican cuisine. There's good Indian food (Bombay, Khana Khazana) and Greek (Akropolis, Parthenon). All sorts of Mediterranean (Blue Nile, Olive House, Hookah). I guess Spacibo has some Russian-ish (I haven't been there, so I can't say) treats. Cajun-style foods are at Cajun Connection. We have a brewery, the Lafayette Brewing Company. Bistro 501 does whatever the hell they call what they do (Frenchy but not really), and La Scala is astonishingly affordable given their delicious recent menu refresher.

I could go on, but I'm afraid I've already run that point well into the ground. Diversity doesn't just happen. People have to welcome it. People have to embrace it. People here at least have a capacity for embracing foods, as we see above. That may well, in turn, lead people to realize that, for example, Mexicans do more than take our jobs and destroy our economy (not my opinion, but it's clearly present in our community).

And that, in turn, is what leads to what I guess is a sense of lip-service and patronization with the current approach to diversity. Diversity isn't something you create by adding a picture of a black woman to your recruitment pamphlet. It's not something that comes as a result of adding queer people to your nondiscrimination policy. It strikes me as utter bullshit to have another straight rich white man trumpeting loudly how our university needs more diversity, and how we need to be on the lookout for new ways to make our campus more diverse.

Here's an idea: Consider someone other than a straight rich white man to run our university, since this one is stepping down at the end of the year.

Is (lack of) diversity an issue? Of course. Should encouraging cultural diversity be an important undertaking for The Academy, let alone Purdue? Absolutely, it's essential! Do we make diversity happen by printing posters that let everyone know how diverse we are (and in the process, ostensibly noting that we are so diverse we have to tell people or they might miss it)? Absolutely not.