I am ... William Adama

By way of "What New Battlestar Galactica Character Are You?"

You Scored as Commander William Adama You have risen to your position by being damn good at what you do. Not only that, you have the deepest respect for the people under your command. You may be a little grumpy and unapproachable, but every commander needs to distance himself. Shame that you apply that to your children too. Commander William Adama 75% Capt. Lee Adama (Apollo) 50% Tom Zarek 50% Dr Gaius Baltar 44% President Laura Roslin 31% Lt. Kara Thrace (Starbuck) 31% Lt. Sharon Valerii (Boomer) 31% Col. Saul Tigh 31% Number 6 25% CPO Galen Tyrol 25%

GODS FRAKKIN' DAMMIT! Why is it snowing again?!? =(

WALL-E Mashup Watchmen Style

So what can good editing, and audio from another movie trailer like Watchmen, do to a fun-filled animated fantasy like WALL-E? Apparently quite a lot!

OMG ... I am so friggin' tired and sleepy. No sense in trying to do any work today.

Taking a Break

I know I have tons of stuff to do before classes return next week, but I think I need a break from everything. My interview at CCA went very well on Monday; I got good vibes from everyone and I hope the search committee got a good impression of me. It's also great to have faculty and, believe it or not, a provost (!) who knows a lot about Foucault and I got some really great questions from them. So as with all job searches, I'll just wait and see what happens. In the meantime, I came across this very well done video about a battle between Bruce Lee and Iron Man. Cool stuff!

Home at last!

Getting ready for my flight back to Iowa. Enjoying the nice California weather. =D

I just finished my interview at CCA. It went really well and I'm loving the school, colleagues, and the students. Time to sleep. =D

Arrived in Oakland safe and sound though with a bad headache. Going over my notes for tomorrow's interview. I think it'll be a good day.

I can breathe again. Battlestar Galactica is finally over. Thank you for an amazing finale, and a wonderful science fiction show!

Saw Watchmen tonight. I gave it a B. My girlfriend says the tone was off. Of course, I agreed. But I enjoyed the blue pee pee's everywhere!

A Sadness in My Heart

I found out this morning that one of my students was killed in a horrific accident while she and a friend were vacationing on spring break. My student was young, intelligent, and full of life; she was a rising star, beautiful and brilliant in every way. She was excited to be in my course, and talked with great enthusiasm about her final paper. I still have her proposal on my desk. I wrote, "Looks great! Go for it!" And now I won't be able to return it to her or see her ever again.

No matter how many times I've mourned the loss of life with my students over the years as a professor, nothing can ever prepare anyone for such a tragedy. My heart goes out to the family and to the many friends who had the privilege of knowing her. I am thankful, and deeply humbled, to have known her, and I will always remember her not as the star who fell from the sky, but as an angel who took a detour to heaven.

Day 2 on prepping for my interview ... a little progress ... still a lot more work needs to be done.

Preparing my public lecture for my interview at CCA. Lots and lots of work revising and turning it into something coherent and accessible.

Chatted with my colleague at the GCC about the job market this year ... How many different ways can I say "disastrous"? =(

What does BSG have in common with the United Nations?! Check it out: http://ping.fm/52r87

Grinnell students on the move! Check out http://ping.fm/kBVBs

I can't believe I'm spending my Friday afternoon researching about cross burnings, racial terror, and First Amendment jurisprudence.

Done with grading papers! *WHEW* And now, time to prepare for my interview. It's just nonstop madness.

Finally...done with teaching...just one more day of work and I'll be officially on spring break.

Just came from a great lecture by Michael Berube on disability studies.

Daft Punk on your keyboard!!! http://ping.fm/LJaJA

Did I also mention that Berube is a great father? It was wonderful to see his relationship with his son.

Had a last minute request to attend lunch with Michael Berube and his son Jaime today. What an amazing intellectual!

Let's see ... read 70 paper proposals by this Thursday? And still prep for lecture? And host a job candidate? And ...

Just came home from attending a public lecture on masculinity from sociologist Michael Kimmel. He's an amazing speaker and scholar.

Another Star Trek Trailer - WOW

Very cool soundtrack too by Two Steps From Hell although I couldn't help but notice a "Dark Knight" theme as well.

Seriously? Limbaugh predicts "Ted Kennedy Memorial Health Care Bill": http://ping.fm/W72wt

*Yawns* Why do I feel like I'm an hour behind?! Oh yeah, daylight savings.

Tweet Tweet

I know I haven't been blogging as much as I would like to lately. I seem to not have that much time to do anything else but think and write in snippets and in random bits. So I thought I try my hand at microblogging and see how that fares. I linked my Twitter account to this blog so that whenever I "tweet" it automatically posts an entry here. After a few test tweets, it seems to work and suit my style for now.

I wasn't totally unproductive. I read a great article about public funding as a political tool to destabilize the NEA and progressive art practice.

So other than doing my own work, I read up on the ZOOT SUIT RIOTS on PBS.org: http://ping.fm/xTRC8 Excellent site!

I got an interview in two weeks and I'm not very inspired to put together a brand new lecture. *sighs*

Ronald Takaki

I just watched Ronald Takaki, Emeritus Professor of History and Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley, in an interview on C-SPAN's BookTV this morning. Very cool! The last time I saw Professor Takaki was when he visited Pomona College for a lecture, and a couple of years before that, I sat on a panel with him about multicultural education. He came up to me afterwards and told me how much he enjoyed listening to my presentation and how my analysis was elegant and methodical. As you can imagine, I had the biggest grin on my face when he said that to me.

There were a few awkward moments though in the interview that revealed signs of his age. He once mentioned Gary Locke as the former governor of Massachussetts even though it was Washington. I cringed when he said that on TV, but his memory on history, details, and narrative was still as sharp as ever. Maybe it's the present day that he has trouble remembering.

I couldn't help but notice that the callers asking the questions would ramble on and on about some of the most inane things ever, and it would drive me nuts. I lost my patience and started screaming at the TV to hurry up and ask the damn question. But Professor Takaki was calm and smooth as ever and generally supportive. I figure he's been at it for more than 40 years that any question, no matter how tangential, is a valid question to ask. I also took notice of his linguistic and gestural ticks, verbalizing his thoughts, going back to a point, clarifying another point, saying "um's" and "right's?" often at the end of his statements, and all the while waving his hands poking the air, or circling with them as if he's begging you to come forward to him with your ideas. It was very relieving to see someone who is an intellectual giant work, and struggle, with his thoughts out in public.

Suavecito!

So I showed this documentary in my pop culture class called Chicano Rock! (2008) which was a short one hour documentary on the emergence of Chicano popular music in Los Angeles. So it got me thinking about some old school classics and I remembered "Suavecito" by Malo. It's simply beautiful!