Photos n Stuff

So yesterday was a busy, busy day. I presented a piece of my thesis at a Social Justice conference held on my campus. Though my thesis covers a great many topics concerning Afghanistan's reconstruction, yesterday's talk focused on why it is important to include religious education in educational programs in Afghanistan. A synopsis version of the argument is as follows:

1) Islam is a HUGE part of Afghan identity and it is better to engage a population directly, from within their own cultural context, than to try and impose foreign ideas from the top down.

2) Giving Afghans the educational tools necessary to understand for themselves and determine the difference between Islam and Afghan tribal cultural norms will allow women greater freedoms.

Of course, I went into much more detail than that for a 15 minute talk.


During the lunch break I took a walk up to Millennium Park because it was a nice day and I was recently shamed by someone for never having gone there even though I work blocks away. So here's a few photos:

"Cloudgate" Affectionately known as "The Bean"

The first signs of spring in Chicago

Stone Container, Prudential and Standard Oil Building (NO I will NOT call it the Amoco Building OR the AON Center, so fuck off) reflected in "The Bean"

The rest of the conference was OK. It was a small, but well-meaning endeavor and I hope they have more of them. The quality of presentations, overall, was ok. There were some that were really interesting and some that were poorly thought out. But you get that anywhere, and I commend the professor who organized it for encouraging her undergraduate students to present their class research in a professional manner. It's very good experience.

After the keynote addresses, there was a reception. It was a day well spent, IMHO. I got home later than I normally because of the reception, so Annie was doing a full-on pee-pee dance. I took her for a walk, made some dinner, and then later that night went to go visit some friends at their new, monthly Goth/Industrial night at a place in Bucktown.

The turnout was pretty low, but we all had fun anyway. There were only 4 of us on the dancefloor at any given moment, but I didn't care. Only one picture from that - my friend's Newcastle sitting atop a pyramid of shot glasses. They were doing a promotion - free Absinthe shots. Don't worry, it was pretty weak stuff.