Classic Style

A day filled with appointments -- sigh -- and a final online office hour session for students.  Cool but sunny though, so perfect for a transitional combination of items.  Looking very forward to being done with final grades, an internal conference next week, and then I can start my summer project, which has been on hold the last two or three weeks given the typical end of semester crunch.  I mentioned to a colleague about two weeks ago that even with the best lead plans, the spring term always ends up like this as we move through the latter half of April toward finals.  In a word, exhausting. -- Heinz-Ulrich

  N ot a suit today, but an odd jacket-odd pants combo.  Pretty certain I have not yet worn these two items during the fall-winter-early spring 2025 season.   Since it was chilly this morning, however, I had the perfect opportunity to trot out the jacket and trousers, which reside on the same hanger.  Both vintage items, thrifted long ago in our old stomping grounds of Central Illinois.  Combined here with various newer items to make up a relatively pleasing ensemble.   But we are well into the latter half of April.  About time now to stow my colder weather gear and bring out the lighter things for late spring, summer, and early fall.  Eager to become acquainted with those old friends once again. -- Heinz-Ulrich

    S hould your plans include a church service today with possibly a special brunch afterwards, or holiday dinner later, I hope you might dress with the occasional in mind. Happy Easter! -- Heinz-Ulrich

  A relatively staid (for me) combination of items today for no other reason than I felt like wearing a suit.  Shock!  Horror!  Gasp!  Yes.  I'm so ashamed.  The shirt collar is a bit rumpled, but not offensively so.  Unlined in other words.  I smoothed it later in the day. Typically, I have been wearing full suits on Mondays when my hybrid courses meet face-to-face during the 2024-2025 academic year.  Not consistently every week, but most of them.  It certainly sets a more formal tone than many students are used to in the college classroom these days, creating a bit more distance between us. Some might view that intentional boundary negatively.  I do not.  After all, I am not their bud, bro, or BFF.  Old school? Indeed.  My function is to try to teach them something and, in the process, cultivate a bit of critical thinking along with collaborative problem-solving.  The suited approach certainly seems to ke...

A few recent purchases from J. Press have arrived in the last week and a couple of days. Given how easy I am on clothes (and shoes), with routine care they should be able to bury or cremate me in a few of these items.   The purchase has little to do with the ongoing geopolitical clown show. . .  with anticipated steep rise in prices for just about everything.  Rather, it was simply time to replace a 20+ year-old blazer that is starting to look its age (along with shoulders that were always slightly too pronounced).  There were also a couple of Christmas e-gift cards burning a figurative hole in my pocket. -- Heinz-Ulrich  

  A cold, mostly cloudy Monday here today with snow flurries and, according to a colleague who lives over that way, whiteout conditions at times in the Detroit suburbs.  April in Michigan, eh?   Good thing I set out various cold weather items before bedtime last night.  A not displeasing combination if I do say so myself.   By the way, the corduroy pants, a recent Christmas gift from the Grand Duchess, are listed as 'Rose.'  That probably translates to 'pink' for most people, but ah well.  I like 'em fine, and they work nicely with various other pieces in the winter rotation. -- Heinz-Ulrich 

  A somewhat more relaxed approach to teaching and learning at the college-level this morning.  Once a month, typically on Fridays, a colleague and I host a small online faculty learning community (officially sanctioned by our institution) on digital learning and collaborative problem-solving, something we've done for the last three academic three years.  Besides the few MSU faculty who join us, the community also includes a few professors from other institutions here in the U.S. and several from India and Nepal, who join us late in the mid- to late evening their time.   Much of our ongoing discussion -- a remarkable blend of Global English, Hindi, Nepalese, and one or two indigenous Himalayan languages -- during the last two years has been about how artificial intelligence is already influencing and changing higher education.  We focus our discussions on how we might get out ahead of that development in ways that actually contribute to student learning, s...