Greetings Citizens. Hard to believe it has been five years. I, like most people, remember exactly where I was when the towers came down. I was here, in Utah. I had just woke up to get ready to teach. I was listening to NPR and they were talking about how an airplane had crashed into the World Trade Center. The thought of it was so outlandish I thought it was some part of a prank... maybe a redeux of Orson Well's War of the Worlds. So I went into the living room and turned on the TV moments before the second jet hit the other tower. I went to school but very few students showed up that day.

On a lighter note, I went and mixed Van Dyke Brown chemistry last night and made a print... just to see if I remembered how to do it. Everything worked fine. Unfortunately, I don't have my negatives with me. Along with my espresso machine, they were accidentally put into storage. Donna has loaned me some 4x5 holders and I expect my film to arrive from Calumet either today or tomorrow. When it does, I will be able to make some images for the class. As it is right now, I have one Polaroid negative that was being used for a bookmark in one of the few books that made the trip down here. It works for teaching purposes but doesn't quite have the density I need to make quality prints.

While I was working on my VBD demo, some of my basic students were in the lab working on their assignment that is due today. (They need to have processed a roll of film and have made a properly exposed contact sheet). So I am already privy to some of the mistakes that have been made: Light leaks, exposure errors, using non-DX coded film canisters in a camera that needs a coded canister, putting the fixer in first.... all sorts of things! I'm sure more stories will be exposed this morning.

The basic students did a good job on their pinhole images though. I collected them on Friday and, hopefully, me and Cole will get them up in the display case this afternoon.

The advanced kids have their cyanotypes due on Tuesday. They are also due for another lecture on keeping the lab clean! I am shocked on how sloppy they are about maintaining a clean lab. They leave stuff out & don't clean up after themselves like their Mom is coming in later to make things right. It's pathetic and will end soon.