The term “perpetual student,” as seen on the tagline of my website, has gained cultural currency just at the point when it no longer seems to apply to me. One mother laughingly called herself a “perpetual student.” She meant she pursued learning for the sheer joy of inquiry. But the term is usually one of …
Author Archives: ivan@ivantohelpyou.com
Admission Attendant
Summit Tour, Summit and Ballroom
(Earlier stops on the Summit Tour: The Exhibition Hall and The Hillclimb and The Garden Terrace) At the Summit of the Hillclimb, you can look down at the traffic on I-5 North at the base of Capitol Hill; I-5 South heading underneath Freeway Park and Seattle Convention Center Arch Building (opened 1988); and the intersection …
Summit Tour, The Hillclimb and the Garden Terrace
(Continuing from Part 1 of the Summit Tour.) All conventions are divided into three parts: the exhibition hall, the sessions, and the hallways. And in my experience, the hallways are what it’s all about. That’s where you meet people, renew acquaintances, and make plans. And take selfies. At the Summit, the hallway experience promises to …
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Summit Tour, Exhibition Hall
Here’s the first in a series of posts sharing my impressions and photos of the new Seattle Convention Center Summit, from the Public Open House last Thursday, January 26, 2023. Highlights of the Exhibition Hall (Lower Level): Why I care: My career as a journalist and writer has taken me to conference venues around the …
Sounds Like
For writer and translator Polly Barton, you’ll find “the beating heart of Japanese” in onomatopoeia, mimetic language that sounds like what the words signify. Bow-wow. Woof-woof. ワンワン. (Wan-wan, rhymes with “bonbon.”) Japanese has a massive onomatopoeic vocabulary second only to Korean, claims Barton, who set out to master this essential aspect of the language: “I …
An ordinary blog
Third time’s the charm. The first iteration of my blog (My Yale Years) consisted of reflections and essays related to a series of online courses. The blog reboot (IVAN: A HALF-LIFE) was episodic memoir. For both, I got off to a fast start but then hit challenging material, whether courses outside of my comfort zone …
Bus Girl
Some people have a knack for chatting people up, turning on the charm, getting phone numbers. Me, I’m an introvert. If I’m on a bus or airplane or a train, I’ll be listening to music while reading a book or a newspaper. But sometimes you just have to take off the headphones. She was an …
Memoir, 9/11, and the Literature of Technology and Political Violence: A conversation with ChatGPT
Tell a story about a man riding the bus from New Jersey to New York, in the style of a KGB report The subject, identified as John Smith, boarded the bus in New Jersey at approximately 8:00am on the morning of January 12th, 2023. He was observed to be carrying a black backpack and wearing …
The Siren Song of the MBA
I was in debt, living with my parents in New Jersey, and I needed a job. In the help-wanted section, I saw that the NYC Department of Corrections was hiring a Statistician. To be working for the city, that’s not bad. In an office, I would think. I had taken some advanced statistics, knew enough …