Meandering thoughts (From Essays to America and Back)

What a busy month and a half. I have left the blog idle, primarily because I have been preoccupied, but also because I of my chronic lackadaisical attitude and because I haven’t found anything to really write about.

Part of the problem revolves around marking essays. Unlike my previous students, the students I have this semester smack of mediocrity. That is not to say that they are poor students, or that they could not excel. In fact a small handful are excellent and studious. My point is more that the vast bulk of the students are unrepentantly average. There is nothing outstanding nor is there anything deploring in their performance. It is simply lukewarm. Essay after essay scored in the mid fifties. If I were grading papers in America, this would be like spread of B and B minus scores. This is not the kind of performance I can be excited about; in fact, it has drained me. I am now marking their second set of essays, and the performance is better on average, but still not where they should be.

This means I am nearly finished marking papers for the year. When I am done it will be a much needed relief, and I can turn to my own research in a far more concerted way.

At the moment, I am back in England I wrote most of this post at Heathrow airport. They are slowly improving the place, but there are still a number of things they could do better. Free wifi would be a great place to start.

I caught a bus at 1:20 in the afternoon. Ahreum was supposed to meet me on the bus, but it didn’t work out. Instead I met her in Exeter. But I was very worried on the bus ride home because I did not know what had happened. She is now completely finished with her work in London, and will be spending the summer with me in Exeter. I’ve been missing her over the last week. Traveling to and from the US was particularly hard without her. I’m so happy that I won’t have to go all the way to Exeter on my own.

In other news, I’ve now acquired a Canon 350d thank to their US rebate offer. It’s essentially a Christmas present from my Mom and Dad, since I will not be coming back to the USA this winter. I guess I’m the spoiled kid with the DSLR now. I can say that I am very grateful of my parents support. One of things I have promised in return is to post plenty of picture so they know what is happening in my life.

So far the operating of the camera has been remarkably transparent. I have experience with the canon system of film slr cameras, and I was able to jump right into the digital experience. These are two of the first shots I had taken before reading the manual properly:

I couldn’t resist that little opportunity to show off. Seriously though, the camera is easy to use. Now a lot of people complain that some major functions are “buried” in menus. While I can’t deny that they are in menus, they hardly require excavation. I imagine changing flash compensation, or iso could be slightly easier, but I don’t use the former and the latter can be accessed with one button press. This doesn’t strike me as being problematic.

Exposure is fairly good out of the box, but not perfect. I suppose it’s about the same as on my last camera, but because I shot film I had wider exposure latitude to work with. The camera is small, but I find it perfectly comfortable. It is made of plastic, but this means it is lighter and won’t get too cold to handle in the wintertime. I’m sure build quality is a step up from the Rebel 2000 I use for film, but it is not a leap forward. At any rate, I am very satisfied and can now focus on collecting lenses until a truly affordable full frame body is introduced.

Meanwhile, over the last week, I have been in the United States. My oldest friend, Chad Lothary, was getting married in St. Louis, and I was one of his groomsmen. I was very happy to be there for him as he begins his new life with Kristina. The ceremony was held in a greenhouse built for the World’s Fair, called the Jewel Box. It was fine wedding, replete with a string quartet playing JS Bach. Chad and Kristina should have fond memories of that day for many years. Here is a picture:

On the photography side of my interests, I was very impressed with the photographer that they hired. He was using a Canon 5d and an assortment of nice Canon L lenses. But many pros would use this kind of gear or better. What impressed me wasn’t his equipment but his disposition. He was friendly, i.e. willing to talk shop with me, clearly knew light exceptionally well, and had a relaxing effect on the wedding party. One of the little touches he did was to show some of the pictures he had been taking to the guests. Of course on a small viewfinder one can’t tell that much about a picture, but he had infused dramatic appeal and depth into his photographs. I have seen other wedding photographs before, and they are often mundane. I’m sure some of his are the same, but most were not. I’m very happy that Chad and Kristina hired this fellow.

Now I have to return to marking

Once more into the breach,

Ben