My colleagues Rob Ostrom and Jennifer Sears put together an impressive display for this past April’s National Poetry Month at the entrance of City Tech’s Ursula C. Schwerin Library. Here are some photos of the display and titles that they curated for the installation.
Last night, I made a delightful meal by mixing two things that don’t normally go together–Taiwanese green onion pancakes and ground beef taco mix.
I asked Y to cook me two green onion pancakes, a breakfast staple back in Taiwan. Normally, you eat them with a fried egg rolled inside with a little bit of soy sauce paste like the one below.
Dubious about my plan, Y cooked me two green onion pancakes while I reheated some leftover ground beef and onion taco mix that I had made on Saturday afternoon. I also set out my favorite sauce, Ortega Medium Original Taco Sauce, and a small bowl of shredded cheese.
Then, I spooned the beef onto a green onion pancake, poured ample sauce, and covered with plenty of cheese.
The crispiness of the pancake resisted folding, but it eventually went over and formed a taco-like shape. Biting into the crisp outer layer and soft inner layer of the pancake before hitting the taco mix, sauce, and cheese really was something else. I wanted to savor it, but I made a short order of it because it was so good!
While my students were diligently completed their Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) feedback forms today, I took photos while walking around the Namm and Library buildings on the fourth floor (afternoon class) and the sixth floor (evening class). Some are mundane, some are technological objects, and some have interesting compositions (to me). Afterwards, I shared my work my students and encouraged them to do the same to build up a personal library of photos that they might want to make use of in their multimodal compositions.
I mentioned this to my students the other day, but I wasn’t able to find a photo of what I was talking about. Now I have, so I’ll show it to them in class tomorrow.
This is my project board while I was an MA student at the University of Liverpool. My monk’s cell had a felt-covered corkboard that I repurposed as a project scheduler by writing upcoming work and ideas on 3″ x 5″ index cards and pinning them into one of three columnar categories: Course Work, or assignments and readings in my classes; Commitments, or work product deliverables like writing a book review or preparing a conference presentation; and Thinking About, or projects and ideas that I was considering but hadn’t committed myself to yet.
This board was the key to my academic success at that time, because it gave me a way of tracking the work that I had coming up and I could see at a glance from my desk what needed to be prioritized to keep my output going.
Over time, the board became quite full of index cards. It was always satisfying to take a card off the board when that task had been completed.
Using a daily planner or a calendar app can serve a similar purpose. Whatever method and tool that works best for you, make a commitment to stick with it so that it can keep you on track for success.
While taking a walk in Green-Wood Cemetery this past weekend, Y and I discovered that our friend Wage the Uglydoll had gone missing! We first met him last year and visited him on occasion. He had been in his tree all through the winter and the beginning of spring this year. The last time that we saw him was in March 2025. Maybe he found a new home or went on a vacation. Wherever he is, we hope that he is safe.
Below is a picture of Wage’s cousin, Country Wage, who lives with us and is a friend to our Mose.
