The Heart of the Maze

sigh

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:38:53 GMT

Dog update.

Mr. C. called. The black lab is a stray they took in a few weeks ago and were trying to feed up and find a home. They call her Shadow (I think we'll rename her Betsy for the adoption process). Katy, the chocolate lab, is one they gave away to a neighbor a while ago (yay, he says, they were dog free). But the neighbor moved out and left her.

So if we'd find homes for them, by golly, he'd be ever so grateful.

Vet's are giving them a checkup, and we'll get pics and bios and contact the incredible group who found home for Johnny the abandoned Rotweiller.

I really hate people.

These are both older dogs, incredibly friendly and in Katy's case, well socialized. They had her for years.

And they're just walking away.

CHEERS Northeastern

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:02:50 GMT

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/11/23/football

Northeastern University, a Division I institution, is choosing to eliminate its football program because of the economic downturn.

This decision is the first I recall seeing that actually cuts football instead of *all* the other sports (especially women's sports), OR cuts academic programs (especially those loser weeney humanities programs!), and actually MANS UP and cuts what is often a huge economic suck: football.

The article says that the university will still have 18 different intercollegiate sports, over 40 club sports, and hundreds of intramural teams/sports.

grabbing your sleeve and staring at you with really intense spooky eyes

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:17:09 GMT

As I was telling someone on my flist, she really should read Diane Duane. Yep. Diane Duane.

One of the best YA series ever (Young Wizards) in which class and ethnicity are not ignored.

One of the first adult fantasy series ever in which bisexualisy is the canonical norm (Tale of the Five, or The Middle Kingdoms).

Incredible Trek novels with amazing women characters (and a Kirk I wouldn't mind spending time with though purists would probably call him OOC since he's not a sexist asshole, and a SUPERB Spock, and the best ever McCoy--Duane has medical training and so she writes doctors and nurses better than ANYBODY.)

Diane Duane.

HIGHLY recommended.

Katy, Karma, and what are the odds?

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:59:58 GMT

In May 2007, we found a chocolate lab while we were driving to work. Very well socialized, and when we walked around the neighborhood where we found her, we met someone who recognized her as belonging to his neighbor. He helped us return her to the pen with her packmate. (The frustrating thing is we had called the shelter, and so had the people whose dog Katy was, and the shelter never put us together.) Anyway, happy ending: the people called us to thank us.

Last week, on same highway, fairly near same place, we saw a chocolate lab in traffic (this isn't the LAST chocolate lab, Tess, we found--who was reunited with family when vet tech saw ad in free newspaper). Tess was the week before. This dog was a NEW chocolate lab. We took her to the vet's; they called shelters (with reminders that recent case of Tess had been the same thing: the family had called the shelters, and vet had called, and shelters could not put together LOST: Chocolate lab with FOUND: Chocolate lab).

No luck. So today we hauled butts out of bed at 6 am, picked up the dog, and walked around neighborhood: ran into SAME man who identified her as KATY (again). We had talked about Katy--but she was pure bred, and it was 2.5 years ago, so we didn't recognize her. (I had thought we should go back to that house since the neighbor told us that her mother raised chocolate labs). I mean, how many people in an average neighborhood have chocolate labs?

Anyway: we tried to do what we did before, return Katy to fenced in back yard where black lab was waiting to be reunited with her. Before we got back to the car, Katy and her companion (whom we are calling Betsy until we learn her name) froliced up to us on the road (neighbor had told us the people loved camping and could not take dogs to park, so they're left on their own all weekend). We put them back in their yard.

They left and joined us again.

We wrote note to people with vet's numbers, our numbers, and explanations, loaded them into the car and took them to the vet where the vet techs took one look at us coming through the door and said, "When you leave with one dog, you are not supposed to come back with two."

One or two of the techs were halfway in hysterics from laughter as we explained; one said she'd like to follow us around for a week just to see how we did it (we'd just had four of the nine cats in yesterday, Friday, for bloodwork, and were meeting with the vet to discuss results). We so seem to provide them with some amusement; since they are incredibly kind and helpful with our efforts to rescue all the lost and abandoned animals we can, I am glad they get some giggles out of it all.

I hope to freaking heck the people FIX their fence if they're going to leave two rather elderly labs (labs LOVE people) alone for several days in a row.

List of Resources on the Social Web

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:52:43 GMT

Linda Olsen has published a list of resources on the Social Web. The blog entry is in Norwegian, but the list is not.

Grading drabbles on the horizon

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:45:59 GMT

~~Did grading this morning, doing some reading of first drafts, so will be drabbling soon....~~.

nevermind. had dept. meeting. all creative energy SUCKED out of me.

It's that time of the year when end of term cannot come too quickly

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:14:04 GMT

I was less than impressed by the "Five Things Professors Don't KNow" by a student.

And since I'm killing time between meetings, here is my take on it:

Five Things Students Don't Know

1. I have been using computers, databases, electronic resources, and nifty programs since they first appeared in the college classrooms I taught in (as an adjunct in 1986). I have been deeply addicted to Endnote since I first got my grubby little hands on it. I adore being able to do electronic searches instead of trudging around a card catalog, and putting in search terms instead of wading through the 13 volumes of the OED. I don't care if you write your own citations or not as long as you've done your own research, your own reading, and your own writing. I just wish you would learn the difference between a subscription academic database and a general google search.

2. I'm sorry for any future students who are reading this right now, but if you have skimmed through previous classes getting good grades because you look like a celebrity, political figure, or tabloid personality, give it up. I will be entering grades in my electronic database with my bony hands based on your actual work since in fact I'm teaching online.

3.A. I'm sorry that so many of you do not understand that when I am out shopping or dining, I do not want to have to drop everything and explain the assignment that is due tomorrow and which I handed out three weeks ago and which we have discussed in a number of classes which you apparently failed to attend, or to attend to, so please go away.

3.B. I'm sorry to tell you that your frank discussion with your BFF about the failures in my class was clearly audible to my colleague who was in the bathroom stall down the hall from our classroom when you decided to share. And sitting in the stall listening to you talk to your BFF on your cellphone while you pee is seriously grossing me out.

4. If you expect me to give you a lecture on material that I assigned you to read, you will be seriously disappointed. And the fact that you keep writing "she doesn't really TEACH" on my evaluations will not stop me from expecting you to do collaborative, interactive, interdisciplinary group work, writing, and revision.

5. There is no need to call me and tell me that you're flunking the course (hint: I know) and ask for "extra readings" for extra credit so you can pass. Since you've not managed to do the reading I've assigned so far, there is no chance that you can do any extra reading. You've managed to do an excellent job of flunking the class, so let's not mess around with trying to ruin your perfect record, shall we?

Save for the next time RPF writers are accused of being the lowest slime molds in the universe

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:33:10 GMT

hradzka (linked by metafandom) posted a link to a blog entry on Donny Osmond RPF published in the published fanzines -- meaning published by corporates for fans to BUY -- from the 1970s.

As I've said before ad infinitum, ad nauseum, the tabloids being sold for gazillions of bucks print fiction that can be called RPF. Many historical novels and authorized celebrity bios can fall close to that category. A friend who sells porn says that porn mags often print first person Gary Stu self insert fantasies with a male making out with female celebrity. And yeah, offical fan mags used to print fiction about the celebrities.

Now, the above isn't slash--BUT the arguments against RPF are usually much more encompassing than "ick ur making strate dudez gay" though they often have that tone.

So, HA. (God help me, I remember watching the Osmonds, and Donny and Marie show.)

The AGony of CHOICE!

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:19:05 GMT

Which to start with:

Posthuman Bodies edited by Judith Halberstam and Ira Livingston

OR

Connecting: How We Form Social Bonds and Communities in the Internet Age by Mary Chayko.

ooooookay!

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:25:43 GMT

Truck Poetry. Truck as Poet!

grumble

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:43:42 GMT

I hate to admit it, but there may actually be a function served by a spread sheet.

*stomps off to see about formatting the thing*

XKCD

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:11:14 GMT

A bit overly romantic about academia, I think!

http://xkcd.com/664/

Petition against Stupak Amendment (US Citizens only I'd assume)

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:55:49 GMT

http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/11/protect-womens-health-care-stop-stupak.html

Shakesville has a post linking to the online petition against the Stupak amendment (which I gather is supported by Senator Barbara Boxer).

I don't put much faith in online petitions, but heck, I signed.

Boosting the signal...

MEEP!

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:56:57 GMT

Meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep meep!

~~you have no idea what two cats glaring at you for meeping along with Beaker's 'Ode to Joy' look like. but i do~~.

teeth chattering

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:31:58 GMT

We had air conditioner on this past weekend, with highs last week up to 77/25; it's now 45/7 and low is supposed to be 38/3!

This cold front came from somewhere that has snow! *looks accusingly at Canada*

International Comic Arts Forum Executive Committee Seeking New Members

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:17:48 GMT

The Executive Committee of the International Comic Arts Forum, one of the longest-lived and most respected annual conferences in Comics Studies, is actively seeking new members:

http://www.internationalcomicartsforum.org/icaf/callforrecruitment.html

We invite applications from academics (including graduate students) and independent scholars in various fields, including but not limited to Comparative Literature, English Studies, Cultural Studies, Communications and Media, Visual Studies, Art History, and Comics Studies.

The members of the Executive Committee collaborate to plan and present the ICAF conference, which since its founding in 1995 has been one of the most important annual events in comics studies. Among the qualities, backgrounds and/or specialties we are most actively seeking in candidates are:

* Web-mastering
* Grant-writing
* Fund-raising
* Cultural diversity/expertise in non-Western comics, pursuant to ICAF's international focus
* Conference- or event-organizing

We plan to recruit several new members in academic year 2009-2010.

Applicants should each send C.V. and a 1-2 page statement of purpose to Cécile Danehy (cdanehy at wheatonma dot edu) by January 4, 2010.

Please send all materials in Word 97-2004 format (with the extension .doc, not .docx) if possible.

We recommend that applicants consult ICAF's mission statement and past programs (at our website, http://www.internationalcomicartsforum.org)
to get a sense of ICAF’s purpose and character. Commitments to internationalism and interdisciplinarity are the backbone of ICAF and we will be looking for prospective colleagues with these qualities. In addition, we urge applicants to frame their statements of purpose in not only intellectual but also pragmatic terms, with emphasis on specialties and skills such as those noted above.

Grading 2.0: Evaluation in the Digital Age

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:20:47 GMT

Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory blog on entry on Grading 2.0:

http://www.hastac.org/forums/hastac-scholars-discussions/grading-20-evaluation-digital-age

I made an LJ feed so I can read on a regular basis: http://syndicated.livejournal.com/hastac

CFP: American Studies in Transnational context

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:56:32 GMT

CFP: The 2010 Texas Tech University Comparative Literature Symposium on "American Studies as Transnational Practice" (4/9-4/10/10)

April 9-10, 2010 at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, the United States of America

Keynote Speakers:
Eva Cherniavsky, Department of English, University of Washington
Colleen Lye, Department of English, University of California at Berkeley
Walter Mignolo, Department of Literature, Duke University
Donald Pease, Department of English, Dartmouth College

Art Exhibition:
Margarita Cabrera, Mexican artist in El Paso, "US Immigration Policy and Maquiladora
Practices"
JoomiChung, Korean artist resident in Miami, Ohio, "Installation Art about South Korean-U.S.
Relations"
Scott Townsend, U.S. visual artist in Raleigh, North Carolina, "Interactive Installation and
Film on 'Border Relations'"
QingsongWang, Chinese photographer in Shanghai, "Photography and the Consumerist
Invasion of China"

Proposal Submission Deadline: January 18, 2010

American Studies as transnational practice not only raises questions on the changing roles that the United States has played as a great power in the global arena since the late nineteenth century, but also calls attention to its own disciplinary premises, interests, and imaginaries in relation to area studies and comparative literature. As American Studies has recently intervened in U.S. exceptionalism and neoliberal capitalism in its critique of discourses that vary from "manifest destiny" to "market democracy," it also foregrounds its own formation as a product of the Cold War and its renewed influence in the post-socialist regimes in China, Russia, and East Europe. Meanwhile, with new paradigm shifts in transnational and global studies that encompass transoceanic, hemispheric, and planetary consciousness, how does American Studies negotiate and reconfigure its own field imaginaries and boundaries? If Hemispheric Studies highlights the issue of "the Americas," how would its critical disposition "provincialize" American Studies? If the westward movement in the nineteenth century was central to U.S. nation-building and the national imaginary, how do the generations of Mexican presence in the Southwest as well as more recent northward migrations of Latinos/as impact the U.S. consciousness as simultaneously old and new national narratives? If Trans-Atlantic movements have informed and reshaped U.S. literary, cultural, and historical experiences, then what new possibilities would Trans-Pacific movements pose for American Studies in the twenty-first century? What are the new opportunities and challenges if we reconsider U.S. literature, history, and culture in planetary terms?

This symposium invites presentations that investigate the theory and praxis involving American Studies in transnational contexts at various historical junctures, and seeks projects that explore specific cases in U.S. history, literature, and culture with global dimensions and implications. We welcome proposals that examine American Studies from U.S. regional locales and global sites as well as abstracts that reconsider U.S. historical and cultural experiences in transnational and planetary frameworks.

Topics may include but are not restricted to the following:
-- Rethinking the Boundaries among American Studies, Area Studies, and Comparative
Literature
-- Empire, Race, and Trans-Atlantic Studies
-- Race, Gender, and Class in Transnational American Studies
-- The Local and the Global in Trans-Pacific Studies
-- Borderland, Natural Environment, and Planetary Consciousness
-- Border Crossing and Critical Cosmopolitanism
-- Border Literature, Chicano/a Theory, and Hemispheric Studies
-- American Studies and Post-socialism in China, Russia, and Eastern European Countries
-- The Trans-Pacific Movement of Asians in Diaspora
-- Wall Street and the Future of "Market Democracy"
-- Westward Movement and U.S. Southwestern Literature
-- Colonialism and Neocolonialism in Asia, Africa, and Latin America
-- Global and Local Wars: Displacement, Migration, and Expulsion
-- The Vietnam War and Vietnamese in Diaspora
-- Transnational Feminist and Queer Studies
-- Postcolonial Studies and beyond
-- The Role of Spanish in American Studies
-- Transnational Cinema
Please send your one-page proposal and one-page C.V. by January 18, 2010:

Dr. Yuan Shu
Department of English
P.O. Box 43091
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX 79409-3091

You may email your inquiry, proposal, and C.V. to Dr. Yuan Shu at (yuan.shu[@]ttu.edu). Symposium information will be available on our website: http://english.ttu.edu/complit/.

Gacked from Debunking White

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:09:19 GMT

Anti-Racism: What Went Wrong"

anti racism is a white supremacist movement. because the big names/experts/the ones who make the money and prestige of it. are majority white.

I remember my first "multicultural" training at my doctoral university where a white man carefully explained to us white teaching assistants how "African American" students think/write, how "Native American" students think/write, even how "white" students think/write, etc. etc. No surprise that it was essentialist and racist (he missed out on the sexist "women write/think this way" but only because from what I saw of multiculturalism in the early 1990s, the men tended to ignore women--in fact I received a number of critical comments from faculty and students a few years later when I included anthologies by lesbian women of color in my 'multicultural' courses!).

I was in the multicultural training because I had volunteered to teach in the English Department's Equal Opportunity Program where students who did not meet the standards that the white middle class students from well off suburbs did were given two quarters of composition rather than one; the readings for the class were excellent--in contrast to the readings for the white middle class students' courses which in no way brought up anything about race, class, or gender). The TAs who taught the "regular" courses received no multicultural training (well, why should they--their students were monocultural).

I think Mai’a at Guerilla Mama Medicine is right although my first response was that capitalism which can co-opt and make money off every revolutionary movement is responsible, but then capitalism as practiced in the United States is a white supremacist movement.

The question came up in the discussion about the feminist and the GLBTQII movements: has a similar process been at work there? I was first tempted to say no, but then I realized that was wrong as well: the fact that white middle class women have overall been the ones to garner the most money and notoriety (if not prestige) in the feminist movement in the U.S., and white middle class gay men in the Gay movement (often ignoring all others, especially POC).

This post is related to ones I've read before (and at least one is linked in my sidebar) about the problems with "white allies." Since I've been thinking very hard about this and related issues, I welcome discussion as long as people refrain from attacking other people (although as always I must note that I do not consider the word "racist" to be an attack but a description of attitudes/ideologies that affect everybody in a racist culture).

Gacked from Zvi_likes_tv

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:35:44 GMT

Great post by Facetofcathy on how to navigation the Archive of Our Own system for tags, warnings, categories, labels, etc.

http://facetofcathy.dreamwidth.org/39611.html

The (yawn) Prisoner

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:31:46 GMT

No spoilers here.

Not feeling the love.

What I remember loving...ain't there.

What is apparently new/changed/remade different....ain't working for me.

Ian McKellan is always a joy to watch: otherwise, bleh.

And I resent/resist the network's PUSH to their stupid site: "get more information about X part of show in 30 seconds." Then commercial. Then reprise of a few scenes, and "learning more about X will get you more into the world of the PRISONER so go to ourwebsite."

And only about three or four corporations decided to advertise, so I sat through the same ad sequence over and over and over...seemed to be a fuckmetricton of ads too.

And I really don't like this aggressive marketing of official sites (OK, old skool fan, we didn't have official sites, we MADE OUR OWN.)

Meh.

I watched the whole two hours (and I hadn't realized it was this blitz mini series--I was thinking, yay, a new weekly series). I was "meh." Plus, it was Entwife's turn online.

Not feeling the least amount of interest....

GIP

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:18:42 GMT

Another post to show off tat!

GIP to link in discussion of tattoos

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:18:19 GMT

I'm posting the icon with my tat to link to in a blog discussion!

giggles and rubs hands gleefully

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:54:12 GMT

I haz an account at AO³

No invites as of yet.

*goes to play with new shiny*

Oh, I'm Ithiliana over there too.

Gacked from Maevele: Feministing Boycott

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:09:11 GMT

A call to boycott feministing due to failures to work on disability issues.

I took Feministing off my reading list because of their Racefail09. They now have achieved DisabilityFail as well, after achieving TransphobiaFail and ClassFail.

Intersectionality is hard.