Why does my "Wireless Internet Connection" icon look like an IUD?
Last year I was sacrificed to the picture-taker by a person whom I had considered my friend. The picture-taker had one shot left, and my damn picture is STILL up in the hallway o' graduate students along with about 50 people, 25 of whom are long gone. (O, to be long gone...) Every once in a while, the department gets some stirrings and things like picture-taking happen, only to languish until another stirring comes down exactly the same path and replaces the first one, which so rarely happens that I would bet money that by the time I finally do get to be long gone, the picture will still be up there.
So when I got an e-mail last night saying that the Department website is going to be rockin and 2005 and awesome, once I answer a bunch of questions and answer a separate bunch of questions about the website itself, and let someone take a picture of me to place on said Department website, I promply responded by answering the first set of questions. It is fair, I believe, to post my office hours somewhere on the Department website. Should have happened a long time ago, more power to you, moving on.
But no, apparently we are not moving on. I am apparently not in charge of whether or not we move on.
For some reason this fills me with indignant rage.
They didn't even ask. They didn't say, say, if you don't mind, could we possibly have a picture of you for our website? Pretty please? No, they're going to need to set up a time so we can meet so they can take my picture for the fucking Department website.
There is too much photographic evidence of me to pull a complete Salinger on the world (thanks, Mom) unless I want to fake my own death, and frankly it's not worth the effort to me now. But I am, for some reason, fundamentally and violently opposed to letting the department post a picture of me on the internet. First, I don't plan on teaching anymore, and GOD KNOWS how long my stupid photo will languish on their website. Nobody in this stinktown will need to know what I look like after May. Nobody in this stinktown who doesn't know what I look like already needs to know what I look like.
But are there people outside this stinktown who want to know what I look like? And do I want them to be able to find a picture of me with a two-word image search on google?
Not without an art director and air brush I don't.
That's right. It's vanity. Or, the inverse of vanity, which is something like terror at the idea of people looking at me - or my image. I already have 72 freakin students looking at me for thousands of man-hours per week, I don't need any more people looking at me.
I have recent digital pictures of myself on my hard drive currently that I currently wish I could banish from earthly existence. Looking at them, to be honest, kind of fills me with self-loathing.
So how do I express this to them without giving the impression that I am a maniac or a bitch, and without giving them the impression that I can be persuaded or strongarmed or tricked into letting them post a photo?
Last year I was sacrificed to the picture-taker by a person whom I had considered my friend. The picture-taker had one shot left, and my damn picture is STILL up in the hallway o' graduate students along with about 50 people, 25 of whom are long gone. (O, to be long gone...) Every once in a while, the department gets some stirrings and things like picture-taking happen, only to languish until another stirring comes down exactly the same path and replaces the first one, which so rarely happens that I would bet money that by the time I finally do get to be long gone, the picture will still be up there.
So when I got an e-mail last night saying that the Department website is going to be rockin and 2005 and awesome, once I answer a bunch of questions and answer a separate bunch of questions about the website itself, and let someone take a picture of me to place on said Department website, I promply responded by answering the first set of questions. It is fair, I believe, to post my office hours somewhere on the Department website. Should have happened a long time ago, more power to you, moving on.
But no, apparently we are not moving on. I am apparently not in charge of whether or not we move on.
For some reason this fills me with indignant rage.
They didn't even ask. They didn't say, say, if you don't mind, could we possibly have a picture of you for our website? Pretty please? No, they're going to need to set up a time so we can meet so they can take my picture for the fucking Department website.
There is too much photographic evidence of me to pull a complete Salinger on the world (thanks, Mom) unless I want to fake my own death, and frankly it's not worth the effort to me now. But I am, for some reason, fundamentally and violently opposed to letting the department post a picture of me on the internet. First, I don't plan on teaching anymore, and GOD KNOWS how long my stupid photo will languish on their website. Nobody in this stinktown will need to know what I look like after May. Nobody in this stinktown who doesn't know what I look like already needs to know what I look like.
But are there people outside this stinktown who want to know what I look like? And do I want them to be able to find a picture of me with a two-word image search on google?
Not without an art director and air brush I don't.
That's right. It's vanity. Or, the inverse of vanity, which is something like terror at the idea of people looking at me - or my image. I already have 72 freakin students looking at me for thousands of man-hours per week, I don't need any more people looking at me.
I have recent digital pictures of myself on my hard drive currently that I currently wish I could banish from earthly existence. Looking at them, to be honest, kind of fills me with self-loathing.
So how do I express this to them without giving the impression that I am a maniac or a bitch, and without giving them the impression that I can be persuaded or strongarmed or tricked into letting them post a photo?
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