You know you love it

Busy day, good day. Things are heating up with the online class - final portfolios are due at the end of this week, and students are in panic mode. Since this is an online class, some students thought they could pretty much drop out for several weeks, and then turn everything in at the end. It doesn't work that way, but I do feel their pain. I am looking forward to teaching this class again for Winter quarter, because I have learned so much, and I know that I can do a better job next time. (Another reason I'm very sympathetic with this crop of students - in many ways they had a rookie teacher, and I now see ways that I could have helped or motivated them better.)

All that is explanation for why I got up early and critiqued and graded and sent out essays for a couple of hours in the early hours of the morning, before hopping on the train into Philadelphia.

At my regular, real, full-time job this was also a very busy day. I spent a few hours at Center City Video, getting my first look at the video we have been working on for several months now. I found some things that need editing, which felt good - earning my keep.

I wanted to take some photos of the editing studios, which are filled with fascinating equipment, but every single one was being used. Across the hall from our room I could hear bits of a video that seemed to be about how to build your own violin.

I did get a shot of an office featuring lots of awards - naturally, there are awards for commercial and educational videos. It's not the Grammys or the Emmys, but it's still creative work, and this looks like the office of a creative person, no?

Since I was in the area, I walked over to the Korean cafe that I frequented often when I was an editor at Lippincott. We called it Food by the Pound, because you just picked up a plastic container and filled it with whatever looked good - everything was weighed at check-out, and everything cost the same per pound.

A group of us had a tradition of having lunch there every Thursday. It was inexpensive and editors could bring their own bag lunch if they wanted/needed to, which was great because our salaries were very modest. How many places let you sit down to eat if you don't even buy their food?

But I like their food -- I like getting a varied selection of this and that.

Before heading back to the office on the subway, I stopped by Christmas Village, the annual encampment of booths selling all kinds of interesting stuff every December. But today I didn't shop. I admired the Kraft Big Noodle Sculpture.

I took heed of the advice at the base of the sculpture.

Back to the office. Meetings and emails and phone calls and boy, I'm glad to have a job. I do love it.