Forget the Brits; On to the Chinese!

Instead, we saw Stephen Chow's _Kung Fu Hustle_.
Fascinating & hilarious, for sure.
Not that I am normally into "bodily" humor;
however the undercurrent of class themes,
as well as the blending, or shall I say volleying, of east/west
tropes were plesantly dizzying and distracting.

In fact, I'm thinking about renting Chow's _Shaolin Soccer_
tonight as well. What fun.

By The Way: For Those Not Feeling Too Squirrely Today

A shorter post might complain about

Hanger Bumps.

How annoying. To pull off a jersey type cotton shirt
only to discover hanger bumps when you look in the mirror,
pronouncing themselves in the most awkward positions on your shoulders.

Grr.

After I solve the Global Poverty Battle,
I'm on to this one.

If I Had to Post

Just to get back into the swing of posting,
after a week of eternity,
I'd probably post something like this:

*** Do bloggers ever "draft" before they post? If so, I think that's a bit funny. Not to be a smart ass, but wouldn't that be taking the self way too seriously? Or maybe those bloggers know who is reading them . . . .

*** Everyone's been yaddaling (ooo--copywrite@2005) about Timmy's Rrroll Up the Rim; you know what? I never look. I always forget. Who knows how much cash I've thrown away?

*** I bet Twin B's soccer jersey would be sponcered by Tim Hortons: TimBits #19.

*** Twin A would probably be starting, say, swim lessons or something like it today. Just to be different from his brother. I'd buy him new swimshorts with a firey red dragon.

*** Yes, if I had children, this would be the perfect weekend for it. Not knowing if I was about to start a "real" job next week, I'd probably keep them out of school on Friday and wisk them away to our nearest Science Intitute for Kids. The 12-one would discover that she wanted to pursue a career in aqua biomedics. She would relate scientific wonders to me that I had never heard before & didn't know that she, erm, knew.

*** All three would squish into a tiny yellow submarine and take pictures for me, b/c I'd be to claustrophobic to get in myself. The 12-one would control robotic arms; Twin A and Twin B would create live diaramas of Mar's Landings on video. We would all try the icecream "Dots" that would be yummy, but far too expensive.

*** Yes, if I had children, I'd hide out with them this weekend until the storm passed over.


@@@ I've never addressed the Case of the Asshole Professor. I've put all the clues together, researched all the loose ends, yet I cannot bring myself to answer his email. It's been 4 days. I think he will eventually forget that I exist. I am just a microbe on the pimply back of that university.

@@@ I wish I could handle the above situation with more grace. But did I mention that my partner had some sort of breakdown Tuesday over the job at _________ ? Yeah, that's the real source of my angst, one in which I will keep embedded in this post (where no one is likely to read). Hard to think about anything else when one's partner freaks out on the sofa, the family physician says she'll get back with us on Tuesday, and the shadow of unemployment with three imaginary coyotes slaps one in the face.

@@@ I really should be emailing my dear friends. Those who care about me have called and emailed all week their love and support. They really kick ass. I wish all of you could meet them--you'd fall in love. I just . . . can't seem to face them right now. I'm a little sad right now. I hate talking on the phone when I am sad.


### Let's see what's in the headlines (if I've served one purpose on earth, it was to show the nice woman at Habitat for Humanity the amazing trick of keeping multiple windows open at the same time. my work on earth may be done):

### Ga. Woman Found, Reportedly Got Cold Feet By MARY PEREA, Associated Press Writer

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A Georgia bride-to-be who vanished just days before her wedding turned up in New Mexico and fabricated a tale of abduction before admitting Saturday that she had gotten cold feet and "needed some time alone," police said.

Jennifer Wilbanks, 32, was in police custody more than 1,420 miles from her home on what was supposed to be her wedding day.

"It turns out that Miss Wilbanks basically felt the pressure of this large wedding and could not handle it," said Randy Belcher, the police chief in Duluth, Ga., the Atlanta suburb where Wilbanks lives with her fiance. He said there would be no criminal charges.

Wilbanks, whose disappearance set off a nationwide hunt, called her fiance, John Mason, from a pay phone late Friday and told him that she had been kidnapped while jogging three days before, authorities said. Her family rejoiced that she was safe, telling reporters that the media coverage apparently got to the kidnappers.

But Wilbanks soon recanted, according to police.

Ray Schultz, chief of police in Albuquerque, said Wilbanks "had become scared and concerned about her impending marriage and decided she needed some time alone." He said she traveled to Las Vegas by bus before going to Albuquerque.

"She's obviously very concerned about the stress that she's been through, the stress that's been placed on her family," he said. "She is very upset."

The mood outside Wilbanks' home went from jubilant to somber after Wilbanks changed her story. Family members ducked inside and the blinds were drawn, but friends expressed relief that Wilbanks was safe.

"Having cold feet is a joy compared to what the alternative might have been," friend Melinda Larson, who had planned to attend the wedding, told CNN.

The wedding was going to be a huge bash. The couple had mailed 600 invitations, and the ceremony was to feature 14 bridesmaids and 14 groomsmen.


### SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AP) -- Pfc. Lynndie England will plead guilty to abusing Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison, her lawyer said late Friday, months after photos of her sexually humiliating inmates made her the face of a scandal that damaged the credibility of the U.S. military.

England will plead guilty in a military court Monday to seven of the nine counts against her: two counts of conspiracy, four counts of maltreating prisoners and one count of dereliction of duty, said Rick Hernandez, her civilian lawyer.

England, a 22-year-old Army reservist who was a clerk at the Baghdad-area prison, was scheduled to go to trial Tuesday at Fort Hood.

Hernandez said the plea deal was reached Friday afternoon during a meeting with military prosecutors at Fort Hood.

"This is in her best interests," he said.

One count of committing indecent acts and one count of failure to obey a lawful order will be dismissed, Hernandez said. That will drop the maximum sentence she faces from 16-and-a-half years to 11 years, he said.

England, from Fort Ashby, West Virginia, was one of seven members of the Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company charged with humiliating and assaulting prisoners at the prison near Baghdad. She became a focal point of the scandal about a year ago after photos of her surfaced, include one that showed her smiling and posing with nude prisoners stacked in a pyramid.

In one notorious photo from the prison England is shown holding a hooded, naked Iraqi prisoner on a leash. In another she is smiling and pointing at a naked detainee's genitals, while a cigarette dangles from the corner of her mouth.

Her lawyers had argued England and others in her unit were acting on orders from military intelligence to "soften up" prisoners for interrogations.

But Army investigators testified during hearings last summer that England said the reservists took the photos while "they were joking around, having some fun."

Five other members of the 372nd have entered guilty pleas, with sentences ranging from no time to 8 1/2 years.

The only soldier in the case to stand trial, alleged ringleader Spc. Charles Graner Jr., was convicted on all charges earlier this year and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Graner and England were once lovers, and authorities believe he is the father of England's baby.

One other member of the 372nd is awaiting trial: Spc. Sabrina Harman, a guard who faces up to 6-and-a-half years, if convicted on charges of conspiracy, maltreating detainees and dereliction of duty.

England had initially been charged with 19 counts of abuse and indecent acts that carried a combined maximum sentence of 38 years in prison. Prosecutors filed a reduced set of charges in February.

### Interesting stories to juxtapose, no? What do you see in the two tales of these American women? I have tons to say on the England case . . .


What?! _Hitchhiker's_ out?! I gotta go--British humor sucks (sorry, but it's just true), but it could be just what my partner needs--

Long Time No Blog

But that will happen when one's universe
experiences a mild upheaval.

Have you ever wanted to be a little insect,
green and jeweled quite nicely,
on the wall
and overhear the conversations of your colleagues and friends
when they happen to be talking about you?

(Well then, think about looking into government jobs
under the current admin. at 555-)

I became a tiny lime-green spider yesterday and discovered
just exactly how my colleagues view me:

I'm a blusher.

Apparently, everyone find this fact not only quite amusing
and entertaining, but also perhaps a bit endearing. Pat on the head.

Arg! I don't want to be a blusher! I hate the feel of burning ears.
My chest and neck flushed pink. Who would have guessed that blushing
would have been the gossip about me? Blushing?! What about my rage
against society?

So, I suppose they have all sat around and theorized
as to the reasons/sources of my blushing . . .
one particular person I blush with at every encounter
must, on some level,
suspect that the blush is a sexualized response--but no.
The seasons of my blushing could never be reduced to sexual attraction,
because from what little snide comments friends, students, and colleagues
have said in the past, say six years, I am viewed as completely asexual.
This perturbs me in unexplainable ways.
I mean, partly, mostly, it's true. But still.

For example, when I was getting my hair trimmed last weekend,
I told my hairdesigner about the interview.
She said, "Sure, and the haircut is going to make it."

"I dunno, maybe I'll wear a lowcut. Should I be hot?" I asked.

She lost it. Looked at her friend through the mirror, over my head, and laughed.
As if I could not be hot?
It's like I'm a fricken stand-up comedian
when it comes to my sexuality.

I blush. What a fatal flaw.
An incurable, fatal flaw.

You Can Skip This One (rather "insider")

There is only one person on the face of the planet who should never never ask me for a letter of recommendation . . . well, ok, there really are several.
But one person in particular.
This one person in particular,
who just happened to be my fricken thesis advisor,
way back when,
actually approached me yesterday in the copier room:
"Wow. Serendipity." he said as he walked in.

Serendipity my ass.

I had ducked into the copier room when I saw him down the hall.
Ducked into the copier room to avoid hyper-freak out mode.

"Hello. How are you." I muttered in my most professional mode ever.
Suddenly, the intricacies of the copy machine were quite fascinating.

"Actually, can I ask you a favor?"

Freeze. Rewind.

Exactly one year ago this man was shouting into the phone how I could never even dream of *applying* to a PhD program because my colleagues would find me in "contempt"--right before I won the Master's Essay Award for my department . . .

This same glorified patriarch was standing, humbled as much as possible, and explaining that for some odd reason, the University committee would not grant him full Professor status this year after serving for 15 years . . . and his own colleagues had, ehem, suggested that he talk to his former students . . . and gather letters of recommendations.

"Actually," he had asked, "can I ask you a favor?"

Have I mentioned how his words, as my mentor, have echoed in my brain for the past 12 months? Have I mentioned that I never have applied for any PhD programs? (Not that he is responsible for that.) Even if numerous others (including the future Chair of the department)have worked to validate my own work?

But he was in a position of great power over me. And yesterday, at that moment by the copier, a most unexpected moment, the tables had turned.

"--a favor?"

I never missed a beat. Being the woman I've been taught to be for the past X decades, having the internalized accommodation switch cemented to my psyche, I smiled and said "Sure . . ."

Furrowed brow. "Really?" In all the appropriate places. Nod my head.

Not once did he notice the twitch between the corner of my mouth and cheek, the way I was consumed with the copier, or the way I dodged all further questions to dive out of the copier room. Not one single "F*CK YOU" escaped.

In fact, when I reached my office in total panic and rage at myself, the first words I typed to my peeps were "F*CK ME." Because I had. I gave this guy my email and told him to contact me. He did, today.


What to do? How do I ethically solve this dilemma?
I couldn't possibly give a good letter--he was a horrible, hypocritical, self-absorbed, meany! He hurt me very badly. Yet--did I mention he was on the committee that selected me for grad school??? It was his word that got me in (without my solicitation)--this is so twisted!

A (not so) Personal Word with My Darling

While you were in bed this evening,
lamenting your life, your choices,
finding no way out,

a multi-colored fraction of light,
quite literally,
bent across the sky
just opposite the sunset,
in a perfect bow.

Curse the Wendy's Finger Woman: Part II

Ok, so I never thought that I would ever blog about the Wendy's Finger Woman. I never thought that restaurant grossness would/could happen to me. Yet, the more I think about it, perhaps my incident of grossness happened as a sort of chain reaction to the WFW . . .

The scoop: much like I described yesterday. We were sitting at the restaurant, I was regaling my partner with every detail of the interview w/the patriarch, when I was served my tortilla soup. When I unfolded my napkin, I, there was, I, well, I saw a green and yellow smear in the center. I stared. Showed it to my partner. Quickly folded it back up.

"Is that snot?"

Against my will, I called over the manager [which, later, as we discovered, was actually the owner]. What to do? What if he thought it was mine [the snot]? What if he thought I was the WFW looking for a free meal? I had to swallow, ehem, my pride and tell him--what if there were more such napkins in the back?

"Excuse me, but could you tell me what's in this napkin?" I passed the napkin quitely to him.
He unfolded it, looked, closed his eyes for a moment [in prayer or holding back a gag?], and said, "I'm not sure--"

"Is it snot?" I humbly asked. "I'm not trying to pull a Wendy's Finger Woman deal; I just thought you should know. Some kid in the back is probably pulling a prank."

He looked into my face and began apologizing to the nine, swearing this was the ultimate in disgust and that he would DNA swab the previous shift to find out who did this. We laughed. He did not. Then he sincerly thanked me for being such a swell, discrete guest. He offered us a free cookie.

I smiled and declined. I wanted the cookie, but couldn't let him think that was the goal of my revelation. Funny, the napkin never bothered me once (I was so high from my interview). The manager/owner checked on us 2 more times and was quite friendly. We saw a conclave of important-looking business types gather in the back. The tortilla soup was so yummy. When we asked for our check, naturally, it was on the house.

Which house? :-)

Well, I've thought about it & because he was so darn nice about the whole affair, I don't think I will disclose that info and bring down the whole chain. Let's just say it was a place *like* Applebee's, Ruby Tuesday's, or Max & Erma's.

I know, I know, this sounds like an urban legend. I also know that one cannot really trust any info from the Mojo site. But, gentle listener, just please, check your napkins--you might win the prize of the day and a free meal.

Curse the Wendy's Finger Woman!!

She has screwed up my psyche big time!

My partner took me out for lunch to cellebrate my fabulous, yes fabulous, interview at _____________ restaurant, and, and

SOMETHING REALLY GROSS HAPPENED!

Only, I felt like I couldn't say anything b/c I would become a suspect!
I shit you not, folks!
But, if you know Mojo, you know I did say something--

But, I MUST take a nap and get ready for the midterm--
I just had to type this up to remind myself to give you the RESTAURANT NAME
and the CIRCUMSTANCES OF SAID GROSSNESS soon, very soon.

Stay tuned for this TRUE TALE.

Fantastically Seductive

My partner whispered a fabulously
seductive thought to me this weekend:

Hillary Rodham Clinton v Condoleezza Rice
Election 2005


Don't know why the thought has never crossed my mind before, but can you imagine?? My heart flutters with the possibility of potential social implications and endless entertainment . . .


btw--I not only survived my interview this morning, but I almost thrived. Thank God. Really. Now, off for a brief nap before midterms tonight!

And What About Bloggers?

E-mails 'hurt IQ more than pot'Friday, April 22, 2005 Posted: 8:08 AM EDT (1208 GMT) CNN Website

Half of workers respond to an e-mail within an hour, survey found.

LONDON, England -- Workers distracted by phone calls, e-mails and text messages suffer a greater loss of IQ than a person smoking marijuana, a British study shows.

The constant interruptions reduce productivity and leave people feeling tired and lethargic, according to a survey carried out by TNS Research and commissioned by Hewlett Packard.

The survey of 1,100 Britons showed:

Almost two out three people check their electronic messages out of office hours and when on holiday

Half of all workers respond to an e-mail within 60 minutes of receiving one

One in five will break off from a business or social engagement to respond to a message.

Nine out of 10 people thought colleagues who answered messages during face-to-face meetings were rude, while three out of 10 believed it was not only acceptable, but a sign of diligence and efficiency.

But the mental impact of trying to balance a steady inflow of messages with getting on with normal work took its toll, the UK's Press Association reported.

In 80 clinical trials, Dr. Glenn Wilson, a psychiatrist at King's College London University, monitored the IQ of workers throughout the day.

He found the IQ of those who tried to juggle messages and work fell by 10 points -- the equivalent to missing a whole night's sleep and more than double the 4-point fall seen after smoking marijuana.

"This is a very real and widespread phenomenon," Wilson said. "We have found that this obsession with looking at messages, if unchecked, will damage a worker's performance by reducing their mental sharpness.

"Companies should encourage a more balanced and appropriate way of working."

Wilson said the IQ drop was even more significant in the men who took part in the tests.

"The research suggests that we are in danger of being caught up in a 24-hour 'always on' society," said David Smith of Hewlett Packard.

"This is more worrying when you consider the potential impairment on performance and concentration for workers, and the consequent impact on businesses."

I Did I Really Strange Thing

It's cheaper than therapy and more entertaining than Dollywood.

The other day,
when I was feeling particularly stressed,
to the max even,
about one of my three most secrety secretest secret,
[the unspeakable, non-writable, wrenching, mother of all secrets]

I sat down at blogger and surfed far and away,
far and away,
to an un-nameable bloggy blog,
written in an undecipherable language,
to me anyway,

and opened a comment window
under anonymous
spilling my guts all over his html
in my mother tongue.

Short, brief burst.
Closed out the window.
Closed out the blog.

Never to be seen by me again.

From an Ironic, Scary Part of the World

While watching _Hotel Rwanda_ last night
and gaping at the horrors and atrocities of the UN,
asking all the while what my own personal role is on the global stage,
in Dufar,

our neighborhood Police D.A.R.E. Officer
was being shot dead on the streets a couple blocks away
by a young man who, ironically, fits the discription
of the very same type of youth this Officer had been trying to reach
for the past 18 years of his career.

The suspect, early 20s, is on foot,
still at large.
His discription? "He is either a very dark skinned white man,
or he is a light skinned black man."
I cannot help but wonder if such racial descriptions
have followed this young man all of his life,
if such racial remarks are part of what led this very young man
to this very night
to end all nights for himself and this community's
well respected D.A.R.E. Officer.

I can hear the choppers flying overhead.
And we have been advised to stay in doors.

Thank You Anonymous Llama Lover

I promise to relearn the art of linking today.

But here's that llama link if you missed it yesterday!
What a great way to start the morning! xoxo

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama.php

Just Not in the Zone

Yesterday, and I believe this may be important to blog,
even if I feel decidedly reluctant,
a friendly acquaintance popped into my office.
I was a bit distracted, grading a few papers before class.

We hadn't really seen eachother in months
(conflicting schedules, it happens here),
but we kept in touch through email.

You see, for the past 18 mos. we have occasionally confided in eachother.
We each drew half a fish in the sand,
so to speak,
and recognized eachother as coming from similiar religious backgrounds,
struggling with the same religion v. academia hoopla---

As I've already stated, she popped into my office sat in a chair opposite me and slapped down some serious gossip. Unable to make a clear transition
into which role I was meant to play for this person--
"F*ck." I breathed.

Red light. There are people you can say F*ck to, and others you cannot.
It seemed to me that her head caught for a sec in mild surprise,
cocked to the side. She went on.
Next thing I know, she says,
"yadda yadda, well [a little indignation], I really don't know how spiritual you are, but I feel . . ."
and trailed off. She acted as if she suddenly didn't know how far to trust me in matters of spirituality b/c I had said the "F-word."
"Led? Led to move on?" I suggested.
"Yeah!" and the conversation resumed.

Admittedly, I was pricked by this.
In so many complicated ways that I am exhausted
at the mere thought of sorting it all out.

Thank God

Florida eyes tougher sex offender lawWednesday, April 20, 2005 Posted: 11:44 PM EDT (0344 GMT)

The deaths of Jessica Lunsford (left) and Sarah Lunde prompted action on sentencing sex offenders.

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- New details emerged Wednesday on the last moments in the life of slain 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, while Florida lawmakers moved forward on a bill named for her that would impose tougher penalties on sex offenders.

Some Floridians have called for harsher penalties and closer monitoring of sex offenders after the recent slayings of Lunsford and 13-year-old Sarah Michelle Lunde.

As Jessica's father, Mark, watched on Tuesday in Tallahassee, the Florida House unanimously approved the Jessica Lunsford Act. The state Senate will now take up the issue.

Today, 292 pages of court documents were made public detailing the prosecution account of her last days at the hands of her alleged killer, John Evander Couey.

Bound and buried near her home, possibly while still alive, Jessica cradled in her arms a stuffed toy dolphin, the documents say.

It was the same stuffed animal that was missing from the girl's home in Homosassa, Florida, when she disappeared, police have said. Her father won the toy for her at a fair shortly before she was abducted February 23.

In a letter found by investigators, convicted sex offender Couey confessed to killing the girl, law enforcement sources told CNN. In a previous confession to authorities, Couey said he buried the girl alive, sources have said.

Police said Couey confessed March 18, a day after he was arrested, and helped them find Jessica's body. A large-scale search involving hundreds of volunteers had failed to find the site, only a few hundred yards from the Lunsfords' home.

Jessica's body was found buried behind a house where Couey lived with his half-sister. Her body was covered by garbage bags, documents said, and her hands were bound with what appeared to be stereo wire.

Authorities have charged Couey, 46, with capital murder, burglary with battery, kidnapping and sexual battery on a child younger than 12 in Jessica's abduction and death. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. A judge has ordered him to provide handwriting and DNA samples to prosecutors.

A preliminary autopsy report has said Jessica died after being sexually assaulted, but Hernando County Medical Examiner Steven Cogswell said Wednesday that the final report is pending and the cause of the child's death might never be known.

Details released Wednesday, he said, are "initial impressions" on how Jessica died.

After Couey's arrest, Mark Lunsford said he would spearhead an effort to change Florida's sex offender laws. "There should be a law for Jesse," he said at the time.

Unanimous vote
On a 118-0 vote, the Florida House passed legislation that would require longer prison sentences, lifetime probation and electronic monitoring for sex offenders convicted of crimes against children.

The Jessica Lunsford Act would punish the molestation of children under 12 with a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life, "followed by probation or community control for the remainder of the person's natural life and subject to a system of active electronic monitoring."

The bill also would make it a third-degree felony in Florida to harbor a sex offender.

Police in Homosassa initially arrested Couey's half-sister and two others living in her home, accusing them of obstructing justice by failing to notify authorities that he was living there.

But prosecutors declined to file charges against the three, saying the withholding of information alone did not constitute a crime and there was no provision in Florida law that required someone to tell police of a sex offender's whereabouts.

Lawmakers say they want to close that loophole in the law.

The state legislation also came days after authorities in Ruskin, Florida, found Sarah Lunde's body in a pond near her house.

Sex offender David Onstott, who previously dated the girl's mother, told authorities he choked the teen and dumped her body in the pond on April 10, Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee said. Sarah's remains were found Saturday.

CNN's Rich Phillips, John Zarrella and Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.



Hope this sense speads to all fifty states--tax me for this & I'd gladly pay it. Now, if we could just work on ways to curb our culture's hyper-sexualized climate that works to create such monsters . . .

I'm the Blog of the Day, I'm the Blog of the Day

Well shake my booty and stick out my tongue.
Here's my nod back and a tip 'o the hat:
http://djshane.blogspot.com/

Geez, wish I could link some tunes.
You would be hearing:
The Beatles' "All I Need is the Air that I Breath."

The teeny in me says:
If I could, all the wounds that would not heal
would drip and ooze sticky sweet golden rays of summer afternoons.

Fun Fluffy Happy Posting

I'm a funny bunny hopping hopping
bringing a happy happy little post
full of fluffy buffy dandelions
and sugery chocolate icecream sundaes
sun-kissed noses with bunches of freckles
and green grass sprouts tickling the bottoms of bare feet.

and unicorns, Sophia.

Really, I Don't Mean to Harp--

Now compare the jail time here to my last post.
Isn't this story just, well, _______?

Body part thief gets more than 2 years in prisonTuesday, April 19, 2005 Posted: 3:32 PM EDT (1932 GMT)
WOODLAND, California (AP) -- A morgue assistant accused of stealing body parts from a medical school so he could practice dissections at home was sentenced to more than two years in prison.

David Lawrence Beale, 47, was arrested in 2003 after more than 150 pounds of decomposing body parts, including two heads, were found near his Davis home. He pleaded no contest Monday to stealing human remains from the medical center at the University of California at Davis and possessing methamphetamine.

"This is a crime involving a great deal of callousness," said Superior Court Judge Michael Sweet.

Police initially suspected homicide when a tip led them to human remains in the trash at a trailer park where Beale once lived. Lawyers for Scott Peterson traveled to the area to search for evidence that Peterson's wife, Laci, had been killed by a cult.

Beale allegedly told investigators he had been taking remains home for more than a decade. The parts were from cadavers donated to the medical center for research.

Fry the MoFo & Send the Message

Of all the crime in the land
being reported to us faithfully, daily,
this crime is the up-most scandulous:

[Student gets 8 years for SUV vandalism
Tuesday, April 19, 2005 Posted: 4:57 AM EDT (0857 GMT)
LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- An aspiring physicist was sentenced Monday to more than eight years in prison and ordered to pay $3.5 million for his role in a spree of arson and vandalism that targeted gas-guzzling Hummers and other sports utility vehicles.

Rejecting pleas for clemency from William Cottrell, a 24-year-old doctoral candidate in physics at the California Institute of Technology, U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner added more time to the sentence after finding that Cottrell was trying to sway consumers with his anti-SUV message.

The slogans Cottrell spray-painted onto vehicles included "Fat Lazy Americans," "No Respect for Earth" and "SUV Terrorism."

Cottrell, who admitted only spray-painting and testified he did not know that two friends were bringing Molotov cocktails, promised he would never break the law again.

The two friends have fled the country to avoid prosecution, authorities said.]


Yes, there is a bit more to this story, yadda yadda. The Judge is outraged at the young "arrogant" man and his "engagement in sending a political message," etc. Were you come from, what are the actual sentences served for rape, domestic violence, drunk driving, child molestation, child endangerment, etc.?

Hands off my SUV!

Big Brother IS Watching

Have you tried Google Maps yet?
Please do.
They have access to some satellite now [?].
Type in "Pizza in ______ (your home town)."
Or your own address.

Further, read up on cameras used in Chicago, New Orleans, DC, ect.
Traffic intersections.

Why is outside surveillance so much more scary than
the inside surveillance we've put up with for years?

A Picture of Rural Intolerance

Tonight I will be conducting
a filmaic montage of the contruction of gender.
Brief clips of various films
will explore the way our culture
reaffirms and stereotypes femininity and masculinity--
and all the people in between this simple dichotomy.
The montage will "climax," so to speak,
with Kimberly Peirce's _Boy's Don't Cry_.

I really don't have the time this morning to convey how disturbing the violence is in this particular film, not alone the mid-western culture represented.

Oh! and while cueing Mel Gibson's _Braveheart_ just now (as an example of hyper-masculinity) I just noticed: Braveheart's most heroic moment in the film, in fact the entire legacy of his heroism, is initiated at the brutal murder of a woman! She must die in order to create the "drive" and "willpower" of Gibson's recreation of William Wallace--and in a most horrible, horrible sympathetic way as well (after her sexuality has been elevated to saintdom in the previous love scene and challenged by the threat of rape) . . . .

Hope my students get into this!

Bare With Me as I Compute the Calculations

I just had a thought:
If I exercise 1 hour a day, six days a week, in order
to increase my life span by 5 years (I just pulled
that figure out of my butt, so already this entire
post is a farse), how much of those five years
are spent in exercise? Are we really gaining "life"?

OK. I'm not a math major, but:
6 hours a week x 52 weeks in a year = 312 hours
312 hours = 13 days
A body gets serious about exercise at age 20 and dies at 75.
75 - 20 = 55 years of exercise.
55 years = 169 days (55 x 13)

So, according to my calculations, we would be working 1/3 of a year for 5 extra years. Ok. Fine. I can do this.

As long as I don't get hit by a bus.

Yep, It Would Be Garfield

If, if I had those twins,
I'd mark this evening as the first time Twin B
read a comic all on his own, word for word (even
words he may not have known [like "voodoo" for instance],
but sounded out oh so awkwardly).

I'd be pretty excited, only I'm sure it would have
had to have been _Garfield_ or something . . .

Then my partner would drop everything
and take him to get the Promised Hotwheel . . .

and on the way home, he'd lose another tooth. So
then the tooth fairy would have to go back out . . .

Seldom, But Tee Hee When It Does

Ever get so keyed-up, nervous, anticipatory, high-strung, or
simply stressed that when you reach the breaking point
there is nothing to do but laugh?

What a relief! I love it!
It started last night & I am still chuckling.

You tell me if these headlines aren't gigable
and I'm really just cracked:

"Car shopper, 81, hits husband, salesman, car, tree, wall"

"Bush has slime-mold beetle named after him"

"Woman beats off burglar with gnome"


Woo-hoo. This (I hope tee-hee) will be one of those days where everthing is just so darn funny . . .

pst~ for my truely conscientious readers no one was seriously injured.

Taxes? Schmaxes. Right.

I finished my city income taxes at around 10:38 today.
Not without much violent cursing, regrettably.
Now that it's over, I can be sightly amused at my pathetic behavior.

After all, I was sitting in my partner's office while filing.
I'm sure the staff was entertained.

Our city taxes are at: 1.6! 1.6! What's yours?
And I have to pay at the U's City as well.
Our state taxes--I can't--even--compose a strong enough metaphor . . . all social services cut, income and sells taxes raised--are we at war or something???
Our federal taxes: we "slipped between the cracks" this year over, like, 300.00 or something. Maybe I should have some kids? 3-4? Does it matter after 2?

News for today:
By MARY DALRYMPLE, AP Tax Writer

People scurrying to meet tonight's tax deadline might consider this: It's taking you and your fellow Americans 6.6 billion hours to do all that paperwork. The basic tax return — the Form 1040 filed by most people every year — accounts for 1.6 billion hours.

The Internal Revenue Service furnished those statistics to the White House budget office, which keeps tabs on the government's bureaucratic demands. The budget office notes that tax work "towers over the entire paperwork burden for the rest of the federal government" and accounts for some 80 percent.

"If anything, those numbers are probably understated," said David Keating, president of the National Taxpayers Union, which reports annually on the increasing complexity and demands of tax returns.

"A lot more of the cost is just planning to do the tax-smart thing. That can actually take a lot more time than reporting what you've done," he said.

Tax returns must be postmarked by midnight tonight [or the IRA claims your balls].

We could build a better government in that time.

Found this on my way home tonight. More grafitti to come.  

Suggestive . . . 

Wouldn't this be a great jigsaw? 

Seven stories actually. Honestly, I've only read about 1/3 . . . Perhaps I will take you in some time.  

I have a Letterbox planted near by. 

Lots of bi-lingual folks in the trees--wish you could hear it. 

Bud. 

Again, potential w/composition. I am so rusty! 

From inside the Oasis. This had potential, but I did not get the fountain . . . sigh. It was a quick shot & I was terribly hungry. 

Do you miss this Triglyph? At all? 

Can you see the textures? 

Altercations

Ok, so I try to be sympathetic to all of those mommy-women out there. Not everyone can be a hip twixter like me. But I did find myself publically enraged today--on the road, of all places.

Somehow I managed to get caught in "school" traffic. All these parent-people lined up at a four-way stop. Confused as to who goes next. Nothing worse.

Unexplainably, I had two children in the back of my car.

Anyway, while I sat in the sun, in my car, barely moving, I began to make the best of the situation and tried to make conversation with Child 1. Twisting my neck, using my mirror, I asked what his favorite part of the day was. Yadda yadda.

The black car in front of me hit its brake lights sharply. I tapped mine, glanced in the rearview mirror to make sure the guy behind me was ok. Continued conversation.

The black car jerks again. Break lights. I think, "Poor car. What's wrong with it?"

Continued my conversation.

Out of the corner of my sunglasses, I spy a rather large woman shouting into her own rearview mirror with arms and hands raised. "Oh. I get it. She thinks I'm too close to her bumper." Hello? We are going .8 mph & I am not too close.

I watch the spectacle. Blood boils. I begin to sneer and mouth very slowly, shaking my head, "You---are---the---sorriest---woman---I---have---"

Her hands fly wildly now, along with quite a bit of head wagging. She doesn't know that I have been watching Fight Club. She doesn't know how close to bottom I am.

I wave "Come on" style at her with both hands. Jerk my chin up. "Bring it" I mouth. Tap at my chest. "Come on" I nod. Gesture at my door.

Repeat gesture. More violent shaking. Repeat gesture again.

She whips out a cell and holds it up. She points violently at it. "Yeah. That's right. Do it." I mouth.


***


I'm posting this from my laptop at the station. They haven't booked me. One of the officers knows me and they don't care what I do. I don't really know who threw the first punch. That's my story I'll tell the judge. I also read a few days ago that Florida, or maybe all US states for all I care, has just given citizens the right to full body defense. Before, one had to try to avoid, retreat, from such altercations. Now that the law has passed, I have a right to completely defend where I stand. So, I shrug, she came to me. I'll tell the judge that I was confused about the law. I won't even mention Fight Club and the freedom of that first swing. Yeah. Luckily, I did not have a legalized concealed weapon in the glovebox.

Re: Requested Info

Possible Film Choices for Microthemes and Papers

*1915 Birth of a Nation / D.W. Griffith
1922 Nosferatu, The Vampire / F.W. Mumau
*1927 Metropolis / Fritz Lang
1933 King Kong / Merian C. Cooper
1935 The Bride of Frankenstein / James Whale
1939 Gone with the Wind / Victor Fleming
1939 The Wizard of Oz / Victor Fleming
*1941 Citizen Kane / Orson Wells
1942 Casablanca / Michael Curtiz
1951 The African Queen / John Huston
*1954 Rear Window / Alfred Hitchcock
1955 Rebel without a Cause / Nicholas Ray
1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers / Don Siegel
1958 Vertigo / Alfred Hitchcock
*1960 Psycho / Alfred Hitchcock
1962 Dr. No / Terence Young
1964 Dr. Strangelove [. . .] / Stanley Kubrick
1965 The Sound of Music / Robert Wise
1966 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly / Sergio Leone
1967 The Graduate / Mike Nichols

1972 The Godfather / Francis Ford Coppola
1972 Slaughterhouse Five / George Roy Hill
*1976 Sybil / Daniel Petrie
*1976 The Tenant / Roman Polanski
1977 Annie Hall / Woody Allen
1977 Star Wars / George Lucas
1978 The Deer Hunter / Michael Cimino
*1979 Apocalypse Now [Redux 2001] / Francis Ford Coppola
1979 Alien / Ridley Scott
1980 Airplane / Jim Abrahams
1981 Excalibur / John Boorman
1982 Gandhi / Richard Attenborough
1986 The Fly / David Cronenberg
1987 Fatal Attraction / Adrian Lyne
1987 Akira / Katsuhiro Otomo
1987 Moonstruck / Norman Jewison
*1988 Chocolat / Claire Denis
1988 The Suitors / Chasem Ebrahimian
1988 Die Hard / John McTieman
1989 Batman / Tim Burton

1990 Dances with Wolves / Kevin Costner
*1990 Total Recall / Paul Verhoeven
1990 Hiroshima: Out of the Ashes / Peter Werner
1991 The Silence of the Lambs / Jonathan Demme
1991 JFK / Oliver Stone
1992 Unforgiven / Clint Eastwood
1992 Malcolm X / Spike Lee
*1993 The Piano / Jane Campion
1993 Groundhog Day / Harold Ramis
1993 Schindler’s list / Steven Speilberg
*1993 The Joy Luck Club / Wayne Wang
1994 The Mask / Chuck Russell
1994 Pulp Fiction / Quentin Tarantino
*1995 Twelve Monkeys / Terry Gilliam
1995 Clueless / Amy Heckerling
1995 Toy Story / John Lasseter
1995 Seven / David Fincher
1996 Independence Day / Roland Emmerich
*1996 [. . .] Romeo + Juliet / Baz Luhrmann
1997 Titanic / James Cameron
1997 Starship Troopers / Paul Verhoeven
*1998 Pi / Darren Aronofsky
1998 American History X / Tony Kaye
1998 Shakespeare in Love / John Madden
1998 Saving Private Ryan / Steven Speilberg
1998 The Truman Show / Peter Weir
*1999 The Virgin Suicides / Sofia Coppola
*1999 Fight Club / David Fincher
1999 Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai / Jim Jarmusch
1999 Office Space / Mike Judge
1999 The Blair Witch Project / Daniel Myrick
1999 The Sixth Sense / M. Night Shyamalan
*1999 The Matrix / The Wachowski Brothers
2000 Titan A.E. / Don Bloth &Gary L. Goldman
2000 O Brother, Where Art Thou? / Joel Coen
2000 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon / Ang Lee
2001 Shrek / Andrew Adamson
2001 Gosford Park / Robert Altman
*2001 Vanilla Sky / Cameron Crowe
*2001 Monster’s Ball / Marc Forster
2001 The Lord of the Rings [. . .] / Peter Jackson
2001 Moulin Rouge / Baz Luhrmann
2001 Mulholland Dr. / David Lynch
*2001 Tortilla Soup / Maria Ripol

*Denotes films I might particularly recommend for these assignments.


This list is constantly being modified; in fact, I allow students to add films at the beginning of each quarter so that each list is customized to that particular set of students.

Most of these are popular Hollywood flicks--instead of artsy indies. That's on purpose. The goal of the class is to begin questioning the ideologies that each film reinforces and/or challenges. yadda yadda. hey, take my class if you want more.

You Know You are Somebody When--

We just got a CD-ROM invitation in the mail to:
VAREKAI: Cirque Du Soleil, the 2005 North American Tour.

Spellbinding. But, is it worth $250.00+ of the summer budget for 3 hours? Why must the pleasures of life constantly be reduced to funds?

It isn't me, but it's nice. 

A lonely place not many visit . . . 

Has anyone heard about the man in black who wanted to see the president this weekend? 

Cherry Blossoms 

Office Hours

Microtheme #2- Narrative
Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1999) is a captivating film that affects anyone who watches it. A Captain in the U.S. army during World War II is charged with the duty to go behind enemy lines a rescue the only surviving son of a widow. Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) will stop it nothing to rescue the young man, Private Ryan (Matt Damon), including sacrificing his men and even himself [why is that? Do you have a theroy? What is Spielberg suggesting about our military? About those we call “heros”? ect.].
The story begins with an elderly man walking down a long beautiful path with his family following close behind but giving him enough room to feel as if he was alone [very nice sentence J! what does this sentence imply about the relationship between families and “heros”? “heros” and “memorial gardens”? What’s to remember??]. Trees are on either side with their branches flowing over the path. Couples and families of all kinds pass with no regard {what a loaded phrase–what does this mean??} to the new intruders. {Describe the camera work here–from the camera’s perspective instead of the “old man” or the audience”}The old man then takes an abrupt turn and we are led into the Arlington National Cemetery, and it is here where we first suspect what this story is about. Upon entering the cemetery, the old man falls to his knees as if he has suddenly becomes too weak to carry himself any further. As the camera zooms in on the man’s face, it’s the eyes that you can’t look away from [very good]. The pain these bright blue eyes contain in themselves is almost unbearable. The movie fades in and out into a time that we recognize easily, D-day [yeah–what a contrast!]. The story takes us with the regiment as they journey in their search for Private Ryan [what is ‘the old man’ still searching for??].
As the final battle insues, we are able to see the true side of Captain Miller as he risks everything for this man he has just met. His orders were plain and simple, to find Private Ryan and bring him back alive. But when Ryan refuses to leave his regiment while they are forced to defend a bridge against many enemies, Miller commands his men to stay with them and help even though he knows this is a no win situation. He could have easily forced Ryan to come with him, but instead he shows his honorable side and stays with him. Throughout the battle, Tom Hanks is constantly protecting Matt Damon even though he is putting himself into even greater damage [why does he do this? What is driving these two soldiers?]. At the battles end, Captain Miller is fatally wounded. This is where he tells Ryan something that will change his life forever. Merely a two word statement, “Earn this.” He tells Private Ryan to earn what all these men have died for, his opportunity to go home and live a long life. Captain Miller dies after saying this, and as Private Ryan stands over him, everything goes quiet except for the reading of a letter written to Ryan’s mother. An excerpt from this letter shows a very important thing. “Nothing, not even the safe return of a beloved son, can compensate you, or the thousands of other American families, who have suffered great loss in this tragic war.” [So, what is Spielburg’s purpose for narrating the scene in this way?] To get this one man home, many men had to loose their lives, which meant even more families were added to the list. I (and the “old man”) don’t know if it was worth all those lives to get that young man home, but Captain Miller wasn’t going to quit until Private Ryan was safe, and I’m sure he would do it again.
After watching this movie, I was given a new outlook on life. It shows the heart of a man in a time where it was thought that no one could show compassion. We realize while watching this movie that humans are capable of great things. {Do you need this paragraph?}


The above writing, to me, is what makes teaching feel good at times. This student has been in fantastic contact with me (for example, this is a second draft emailed to me) & really wants to improve. I look forward to a conference with this student today.

My Fridge Work

Although my last post, "The Shitwork of Blogging," deserves to remain in focus, I simply can't help myself--I must keep the blog rolling.

Is it just me, or is Zatarain's New Orleans Style Black Bean and Rice yummy city? Too bad I inhaled a piece of steaming rice into the back of my throat and burnt my tongue on the first bite . . .
Didn't some famous novelist write about avoiding such an event? Hemmingway?
Curse my blogger knowledge.

Tonight! WS100. We will learn
the difference between these terms:

Transgendered
(people who push the boarders of "normative" gender through behavior, ect.)
Transexuals
(those who feel as if they have been born into the wrong body)
Transvestites
(people who enjoy cross-dressing)
Androgyny
(people who lack obvious distinction in gender recognition)
Hermaphrodites
(those who are born with both or no reproductive organs and must choose a gender)

Who needs a WS Certificate to teach the social construction of gender? C is biting my last nerve. She keeps emailing me and throwing the WSC in my face . . . what a twisted unhappy little wretch who seeks to enforce all rules so that she may succeed . . . screw that!

But tonight will be hard. We have also been dancing around the role religion plays in all of this. Naturally. However, I really don't want to bust in and knock religion to smither-come . . . I believe religion holds great value . . . I am not ready to confront/teach this section . . . . aeiya.

If I had a 12-year-old, I'm sure she would excell in every subject except English. Especially spelling. In fact, she'd get straight As except in spelling. We'd probably have to study tonight over words like:

absolute beacon camouflage
credible deliberate exceed
grammar humane initial
kernel maneuver mortal
nutrition optical phrase
reality ridicule season
timid vital

I would moan and complain as much as she. Then we'd eat ice cream.

Oh, and btw: "out-sourcing torture"??!

The Shitwork of Blogging

Have you noticed how many commentators out there are trying to label what is "good" blogging and what is "shit"? How amusing. Those who fantasize that they are in power, on top of the heap, "real" writers verified by "approved," isolated writing communities, seem to be trying to replicate those very same (false, yet not) power structures here in hyperspace.

I read one review that compared some bloggers to little children who hang elementary drawings on the fridge with magnets.

Can we sense any insecure gatekeeping?

What happens if a form of communication begins to question our very epistemology, that is the way in which we understand the "origins" of our knowledge or how we count what is knowledge and what is not? What if we, as a society, begin to value other forms of knowledge that aren't neccessarily institutionalized by the "approved"?

What if, for example, I start to understand what the lives in Cameroon experience from first hand accounts, from an "oral" tradition if you will, rather than polished excerpts from academic texts that have been "approved" by the gatekeepers?

Wow--can blogging be seen as a new type of (high-tech) oral tradition?
If so, I call the copywrites on that idea, 04/10/05.
Yeah yeah, life is full of ironies and people trying to make a buck.
But you have to admit: that idea is better than the simple dichotomy of good/bad blogging.

Why would anyone want to share the headline of her long awaited wedding with that of a world renown funeral?

It's Not Like That: Peeking Under the Window

It's not like I don't still read your blogs.
Because I do.
I laugh.
I think you are witty and fun.

It just seems that for *some*--if I comment--
a time lapse/warp cames and sucks you away.
I'm not sure what's happening . . . to reality.
I'm enjoying the lurk.

I may have an, as of yet, undefinable blogging superpower.
I've always expected such.
Perhaps I am discovering how to manipulate the Blog
without ever opening a comment window.
Peeking under the window.

Keep Your Guts In

Cookie Monster has been put on a diet.
That's right & you heard it first here (well, maybe).
"'C' is for cookie, that's good enough for me"
may be changed to "'C' is for carrot . . ."
Ok, so I freaked. And a part of me is still freaking.
O Sesame, you have gone too far!

But, the truth is that it had to be done.
If all of my theories on visual images even add up to jack shit,
it had to be done. Children (along with my members of my accquaintances, actually) do in fact need to learn that cookies are a "sometime" food. Is that so terrible?

Yes! No! Why all the change?
O miserable Daily change? How can I keep up?



Blurb Bits:

*Watched, and enjoyed very much, _Spanglish_. Great flick--for Hollywood. I do take notice of the strict gender dichotomy the film pretends to examine and explore, however. Yadda yadda . . .

*I stopped the viewing of _Fight CLub_ in my 152 a half hour early yesterday & then blanked out. Zombie city. Could not remember why I did so, or what was the next step for the class. Flatline. So I let them go early. Robotified--who's pushing my buttons? Did that student (from the last post) VOODOO me, or what?? Really??!

*Bought new eyewear today. Hated every moment. Except my optomitrist. She looked & acted almost identical to one of my bestest best friends teaching and studing in Kansas right now. She was wonderful. Makes me want to drive to KS right now . . . Anyway, back to hate. How can one pick out decent frames without one's glasses on from which to see? Just tell me that. And the 'fashionable' frames now? Non-exisitant, really; Just 2 lens held together by a nose bridge and ear wraps. Felt disposable. Ick. So, I let some woman choose my frames . . . contacts? Why do you ask?

*If I had a soccer kid, I bet he would have been goalie last night for the first time and would have caught 2, count them, 2 balls for his watching Aunt. The crowd would have cheered while I was on the road, behind the wheel, fuming about the price of gas and my inability to bike 56 miles to work . . .

*Further, I bet last night would have been something like, oh, "Family Unity Night" at school. My partner would have taken Twin A, and they would have won a prize for being called on stage and acting out an improvization . . .

*But, I'd console myself in front of the blog with: "It takes a community to raise a child . . ."

*Oh yes! My resume. I knew I was unfocused. Helplessly unfocused for 2 days now. A small community hospital is in need of a PR person. I'm rather excited. I may have a good chance at this. It's the hospital where MZ works . . .
Did I ever tell you that I was once an insurance billing clerk? We won't mention that I was, ehem, fired . . . for name-calling. Me? That was long ago. Now I'd be great for PR. Wonder how much I should ask for? If I get an interview . . .

*I don't have brain swelling around my optic nerve. What a relief. Actually, I'm serious. Must go to doctor soon & find out why I am dizzy occasionally. Thought I needed new glasses . . . most likely, anxiety. Ear still aches. Health. Who needs it? I am so sick of wondering what is imaginary and what is not. When are "they" ever going to figure out the difference (I know, I know! intimately linked. Ok!)? Our culture has commodified health to the extreme--if I get an ache, I wonder what wretched disease I am dying from . . .

*Must soon blog about LbNA. You know, I could blog 4ever 2day.

*Eeeeiik. I'm such a spaz right now--50 to 1 says I waste yet another day!
Productivity is so over-rated. What's for dinner? Yoga? Sunshine. Breeze.

"Just Consider What I've Said When Planning Classes"

Student:

I know that no one else in class is probably going to speak, and since I'm use to taking on this responsibility, I'll go ahead and do this. I do not want this to be taken the wrong way, but it's very difficult for me to stay focused during a lecture that is occurring when the time allotted for class has run out. Tonight, I was sitting next to one student who mentioned that she has a one hour drive home, and she seemed pretty annoyed that we have been kept late every night since classes started. I for one, have an endless list of things I have to accomplish before I fall asleep at night, and when things start late, I'm in a panic the entire time I'm home. I didn't know if by saying anything it might get you to consider not holding us late. I really enjoy this class, and I want to continue enjoying it, but I find it hard to enjoy something that has yet to not cause me extreme stress the rest of my evening. The fact that this is my last quarter, and I have a severe case of senioritis, doesn't help me much either.

I hope this doesn't upset you. I think you are a great professor, and I do enjoy your class, because you allow discussion. I'm hoping this will be a good discussion, and you just consider what I've said when planning classes. I'm mostly speaking for me, but I know for a fact that other students have the same feelings as I do. I just prefer to not let things snowball into bigger issues than they have to.


SQ:

Thanks for bringing your concerns to my attention, although, please allow me to assure you, that such visible frustration has not gone unnoticed. Yet, this frustration is mutual. I had 9:20pm on my watch and announced as much in class tonight when we moved from small groups back to large group. In response, many people began packing up. Not only is this shuffling distracting and rude, but it also eats up even more of those last few minutes when I am clarifing the assignment. Immediately after I dismissed class tonight, I took time on my watch--9:31:25.

Is the one minute and twenty-five seconds delaying the evening? Or could my watch be set differently than clocks in LU hall? In case of the latter, someone could have simply informed me when I announced that I had ten more minutes.

If you and the others you mention would like to discuss this further, I would be happy to meet during office hours, which, ironically, are held after class.

Best,
SQ


Dearest Blogger Friends--that last bit was kindof funny, 'eh?

Who knew? I Suspected--

BREAKING NEWS [from my U]
Student arrested after bringing 2 guns into library, kidnapping roommate
by Carolyn Casey
Staff Writer

Police arrested an U senior carrying two loaded guns in A Library last night, after he had held his roommate at gunpoint Monday.

The A and U police departments responded to a call at about 9:20 p.m. from a library employee who said a suspicious man had been walking around the second floor Learning Commons for hours.

The police came onto the second floor, spoke with reference desk employees and started evacuating half of the floor quietly and quickly, said H, a library employee.

Officers cleared students and staff from the half of the floor closest to the P Place entrance before confronting the suspect, Ryan S, who was located near the elevators, according to an PD incident report. The police took S, 25, into custody and charged him with abduction and two counts of carrying a concealed weapon.

Though police could not estimate how many students were on the second floor, no one was hurt at the time of the incident.

“I was at a computer station, and all of a sudden I heard cops yelling ‘Get on the ground; get on the ground; where’s the guns?” said Mike C, an U sophomore.

C, who was about 30 feet away, said the officers took multiple weapons from what he described as a thicker, white male wearing a heavy metal t-shirt.

“(The police) came loaded to deal with a major threat,” he said.

S’s roommate, who had been forced to drive S around , went to PD at 7 p.m. Tuesday after escaping, said PD Lt. Fish. Officers immediately began looking for S.

U sophomore Kristin C, who was at the second floor of the library last night, said she got up from her computer to use her cell phone in the stairwell when the police appeared and wrestled S to the ground.

“The cops all had guns, and one was pointing (a gun) at him,” C said. “They said if he didn’t give up the guns they would put one in his head.” ">S, of Sville, was kept at the S Regional Jail overnight on a $20,000 bond and has a 9:30 a.m. hearing at the City Municipal Court, located in the city building.



Yes, I suspected that our U was cultivating the precise climate for such an occurance; in fact, I've been watching for such an episode since Columbine, 9/11, ect. Wait--suspected, or feared? The library, naturally, is the central hub where I work, a few hundred feet away. Friends with whom I had lunch with yesterday work on the 2nd floor, where this took place. I wonder if this story will break the news, or if my U will keep it hush, like the rapes on campus?

Violence happens. Closer and closer.

F*cking Rage? Who's Full of Rage?

People are gently suggesting to me that
I may be full of anger.

Anger? at what?

Lack of access to cultural capitol
due to circumstantial
time and space would be today's guess.
And yes, I'll keep that vague, opaque. Thanks.
Why? Because it seriously hurts d8mnit!

To use "this administration's" over-sexed metaphor,
I'd say that I'm tired of looking at all the juicy-wet, crisp
carrots dangling in front of me, only to have my ass flecked
with a bunch of sticks everytime I realize there is no self-serving reason (beyond mere survival) for stretching out my neck for them one more time--

Screw clarity. Nothing's clear.
Why should I pretend otherwise?

Point of Lecture today:
Freud (ok, I know he's basically bunk, but bare with me) believed that one outlet for repressed emotions buried within the Id came through creative expressions such as the arts. In this way outlets, such as writing, say, can become a healthy way of avoiding psychosis. What does such a theory have to do with blogging?

Bit of a Red Nose

Got some sun yesterday, which was nice, if unexpected.
I suppose 3 hours on a soccer field can do that.
Honestly, I can't tell if I'm sunburnt or windburnt.
Just glad that parts of my body are warm.

Tonight, in WS100 we will be discussing systems of power and oppression.
And you know, I'd like to just sit down and chat with my students.
Not do monkey tricks.
Monkey tricks designed to keep them "engaged."
WTF? Isn't the subject engaging enough??
Can we simply sit down as human beings and discuss how these theories
explain and effect our lives--or not?

Tomorrow, in ENG152 we will be examining/writing about Hitchcock's _Psycho_.
This film always lends itself to fabulous conversations,
so I am excited about that. I enjoy teaching about writing . . .
Although I may practice feminist pedagogy, I'm not sure if I enjoy teaching WS explicitly. Perhaps I simply need a stronger background and more experience.

If I ever do print off this blog,
bind it, and store for prosperity,
it will matter not at all.
Because, you see, I have deftly avoided almost all subjects
of keen popular interest: Shiavo, the Pope, Charles' wedding, the latest school massacre . . . etc.
Then again, perhaps someone, someday, may be interested in simple thoughts
of the common corners of the world . . .


Off to read for WS--I have a facinating article on classism
that I want to prepare. Donna Langston claims:

"We have a 'dual welfare' system in this country whereby welfare for the rich in the form of tax-free capital gain, guaranteed loans, oil depletion allowances, etc., is not recognized as welfare. Almost everyone in America is on some type of welfare; but, if you're rich, it's in the form of tax deductions for 'business' meals and entertainment, and if you're poor, it's in the form of food stamps."

Architectural Race to the Top

I've been following this story sporadically;
_TIME_ had a rather nice write up, with great pics & charts,
a few weeks ago. So I was pleased to spot this on, yes, CNN:
Dubai tower to be world's tallest building
Thursday, March 31, 2005 Posted: 9:54 AM EST (1454 GMT)

An artist drawing of the Burj Dubai -- developers aren't saying how high the skyscraper will top out, but observers say it will be above 2,300 feet (700 meters).

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- For now, the world's tallest building-to-be is just a flower-shaped concrete tattoo on the desert sands, but its pilings are already in place, plunging 160 feet into the earth. When it's finished, visitors will swoon over this city from 123 stories high, if not more.

In fact the Burj Dubai will be much higher, the developers say dozens of stories taller than skyscrapers in Taiwan, Chicago or anywhere else. But they are keeping the exact height a secret to flummox competitors in the world's furious race for the title of tallest skyscraper.

"We're going to records never approached before. Not only will it be the tallest building, it will be the tallest manmade tower," said Robert Booth, a director at Emaar Properties, the Dubai construction firm developing the spire-shaped, stainless-steel-skinned tower.

Booth said jokingly that once completed in 2008, the $900 million Burj will sport a movable spire to keep observers from ever gauging the true height.

"Only the chairman will know how tall it is," he joked.

He refused to reveal the total number of stories, but a mock elevator at the site held a button for a 189th floor. The building's 10 foot sway in the wind means designers need to prevent whiplash in the ultra-long cables hauling up 50 elevators.

The craze for height has hit hardest in industrializing Asian countries like Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, which boast seven of the world's 10 tallest buildings. The current tallest, at 101 floors, is the Taipei 101 in Taiwan, though Toronto's CN Tower is 180 feet higher, largely because of its huge antenna.

The Persian Gulf city of Dubai has staked its fame on engineering audacity such as its vast archipelagoes of artificial holiday islands, and the Burj, Arabic for "tower," is one of its more extreme mega-projects.

New York built skyscrapers because land was scarce; Dubai is doing it to get on the international map.

"It's image, clearly," said Richard Rosan, president of the Washington-based Urban Land Institute. "There is no practical reason for having a building this tall."

On paper, the Burj looks something like a giant space shuttle about to be launched into the clouds.

Booth took reporters to the open-air 37th floor of a neighboring building, a vertigo-inducing experience in itself, and chatted breezily while standing perilously close to the abyss.

"Can you imagine what it's going to be like on the 137th floor?" he said. "You can't be scared of heights to do this job."

Developers say the silvery steel-and-glass building will restore to the Middle East the honor of hosting the earth's tallest structure -- a title lost in 1889 when the Eiffel Tower upset the 43-century reign of Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza.

Designers have planned for catastrophes, manmade and other, said Greg Sang, Emaar's project manager for the Burj. Sang believes the concrete-core building would withstand an airliner strike of the sort that brought down the steel-frame World Trade Center.

An Emirates official follows a site engineer during a tour to visit the compeleted foundation of Burj Dubai, the world's proposed tallest skycraper.
"Concrete is much more robust than steel when you hit it. It's also much better at resisting fire," he said.

The tower owes its shape to American architect Adrian Smith, of the Chicago firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Smith also designed Shanghai's 1,378-foot Jin Mao tower, the world's fourth tallest.

Workers from the chief contractor, South Korea's Samsung, are already swarming over the slab, shaped in three rounded lobes like a local desert flower.

A hotel will occupy the lower 37 floors. Floors 45 through 108 will have 700 private apartments -- already sold in just eight hours, the developer said.

Corporate offices and suites will fill most of the rest, except for a 123rd floor lobby and 124th floor observation deck -- with an outdoor terrace for the brave. The spire will also hold communication equipment.

As for the title of world's tallest, Sang expects the Burj to hold it for a few years. "But someone, somewhere will come along and build a taller building. It's just a matter of time and money."



FACT BOX
The world's 10 tallest buidlings:

1. Taipei 101 -- Taipei, Taiwan

2. Petronas Towers -- Tower 1-- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

3. Petronas Towers -- Tower 2-- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

4. Sears Tower -- Chicago, U.S.A.

5. Jin Mao Tower -- Shanghai, China

6. 2 International Finance Center -- Hong Kong, China

7. CITIC Plaza -- Guangzhou, China

8. Shun Hing Square -- Shenzehn, China

9. Empire State Building -- New York City, U.S.A.

10. Central Plaza -- Hong Kong, China

Source: SkyscraperPage.com

Don't Google Your Own Blog

The experience can be rather depressing.
For example, I found a site called "BlogShares"
and discovered that my blog was only worth $6,000.
In virtual cash.

I think my value is down b/c I cannot figure out
how to install a blogroll. Should it be "role"??

And excuse me Mr. Kant! How do you justify
putting a "[sic]" after my name???
Do I not have the agency to name myself?
I think I'll just stroll over there and ask him--


I am beginning to understand why [some] men
[may] fear castration . . .

grumble grumble
piss and moan

Fantastic

Great. Wonderful.
This is the weekend we lose an hour.
Fabulous.
Think of all I could have done in that hour.
Perfect.
I am remembering that trip to Mexico--cut an hour at both ends.
Almost missed the plane.

BedHead's "Dumb Blond"

So I just got back from my salon where I made a fantastic fuss over this product.

I mean, really. Please.
Perhaps I'm just too 2nd wave in my feminism, but I simply don't see anything reaffirming in the word "dumb"; yes, people can reclaim "bitch" and "queer" and "nigger," but how can "dumb" be transformed?!
Especially through a haircare product?

Same old horrible message being sent out to young girls and women:
Have fun being dumb! Just worry about looking pretty so when I have sex with you,
I look good too.

The other women at the salon didn't understand why I was making such a big fuss; like, they use it all the time (while they make 40%-60% less than the men who were #1 never told to be dumb and #2 who went on to higher degrees and then developed this product for pure profit).

Visit this website and utterly toast them if you dare:
http://www.tigihaircare.com/us/contact/

Internalized Racism

Perfect example [could also be used as Freudian Slip]:


Colo. Gov. Apologizes for 'Natives' Remark
Fri Apr 1, 6:56 AM ET U.S. National - AP/Yahoo! News

DENVER - Colorado Gov. Bill Owens apologized for saying "the natives are getting restless" during a conference on tribal gambling.


Owens made the remark at the Western Governors' Association Summit after a participant's microphone wouldn't work and he urged it be fixed quickly. Some attendees told the Rocky Mountain News the audience fell silent, then groaned and chuckled.

"It was an inadvertent comment that the governor regrets," Owens' spokesman Dan Hopkins said Thursday. "He apologizes to anyone who was offended."

Sheila Morago of the Arizona Indian Gaming Association said Owens laughed when he said it and so did the people with her.

"I don't think he meant it in any derogatory way at all," she said.

Richard Milanovich of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in Palm Springs, Calif., said he "couldn't imagine" any person of stature making that kind of remark.

Owens "went out of his way to call this conference, and then more or less made fun of the people who were there," Milanovich said.



Racism happens, intentional or not.

"Geek-tasic"

Hollywood's weekend rage appears to be a flick called _Sin City_.
Heard it discussed on NPR this morning.
This film attempts to "cross-over film and comic" in new
ways, where the medium of the "frame" is kept intact through coloring (or the absense of) and digital effects . . . ect.
genre: film noir.
why are (recognized/publizied) innovations targeted at/through film noir?

How will this film be different from, say, _Sky Captain [and the whatever of] Tomorrow_? or "filmage" of anime such as found in the _AniMatrix_? I really don't mean to, yawn, be hard to impress, but I am simply a product of my culture.
Yet kudos to Hollywood and its attempt to be fresh.

I still contend that the graphic shots in, ahem, _Polar Express_,
capture a desire to look past and through pure objects [for example, when the "camera" moves beyond/through the encyclopedia to expose a view point from "inside" the book, with the text, in this case a definition of reality, coming between the viewing audience and the boy who cannot see beyond said definition]. For me, any innovation will have to come from point-of-view.