I'm strongly considering taking a seminary course online in the fall to "get my feet wet" with the academic world again. Other friends have done this, or are preparing to do so, and I think it is in tune with where life has been taking me. Anybody else diving back into education after being out of it for some time?

One of the few high-points in the Detroit ecomony today is Mexicantown in Southwest Detroit. In an underprivledged, undereducated area, investments by native residents have led to developments such as the Mexicantown International Welcome Center that opened in October 2007. And in the midst of all of that, I-75, the main freeway through the area, is closed until December 2009. Here's hoping and praying that projects like Detroit Cristo Rey High School can bring some extra light into the area until the construction is done. As to Cristo Rey, the Michigan Catholic weekly had this to say:

The Easter season is a time for Christians to celebrate new life in Christ — and new life is exactly what administrators of Detroit Cristo Rey High School are sensing. In fact, more than one person involved in the new coeducational Catholic high school have described the school as "a phoenix rising from the ashes."

Perhaps that phoenix will be yet another catalyst to the revitalization of Mexicantown and greater Detroit.

Wednesday is the first day of what promises to be an easier albeit very busy semester. Music history, African history and biology are the three courses I am taking. Various 1 credit odds and ends round out the schedule. The highlights for the semester lie in an independent study on German nationalism and the frosting on the proverbial cake, a one-week seminar with historian and author David McCullough. Most recently the author if 1776, Mr. McCullough gained national fame (as well as my own personal affection for his writings) after his biography of John Adams, which was on the New York Times Bestsellers List for over a year. His seminar, which I believe to be about leadership and history (granted I didn't pay too much attention to the course title, I was sold by the author's name), should be an absolute joy for me.

I have thus managed to inform on my overall class takings without posting a copy of my actual schedule. Feel free to e-mail if you feel inclined to know the entirety of the schedule (or if you simply want to correspond).