Bearshorty's musings

Since it is Thursday, not much is going on since I’m just at home trying to do work without getting distracted.

I love Medieval Sourcebook so much. All those documents. It is easy to put together readings for students. I’ve had to set up the second part of my law class with readings for Charlemagne and Fourth Lateran Council and it was nice to have all that easy access.

All the birthday presents for next week’s big birthday get-together have arrived and I went to buy the last birthday card today. It is good to have it all set.

“Community” continues to be hilarious. For some reason all Britta and Chang scenes made me laugh and laugh. I think it was the song.

I changed the color of my layout last night to green. I like it but I’m still getting used to it.

The meeting with the guy who plagiarized and the athletic director was very civilized. I’m glad I met all together. The guy did apologize for plagiarizing now that he understood that it was wrong and everything. And the athletic director promised that next year he will hold a special session to educate all athletes about plagiarism, which I think is a right thing to do.

After the meeting, I went by my office to turn in the incomplete form and to pick up exams some students with disabilities took in a special office. Then Mama and I went to the Russian store and picked up black bread and other food. We have guests tonight, a classmate of Mama and her daughter, so Mama wanted to have good food and the house to be prepared.

In the late afternoon I wanted to go for a walk and Mama asked me to get some ginger ale. As I left the house I ran into the Kid who was practicing her rollerblading a little and she wanted to come with me. So she came with me. I told her about Marco Polo since I was telling her about college. Nine year olds are fun since she was fascinated by him; she never heard of him before. And when I told her how one of my students got in trouble by copying a paper from the internet she was very baffled of why he would do that since he can’t learn anything by copying.

I left the guests for half an hour at 8 to watch the finale of “Community” and their second part of the paintball episode. I love this show.

I like grading final exams, I don’t have to comment, just put the grade on. I set up my grading formula on Excel and tomorrow I have to finish grading.

Cross-stitch: light purple today.

Today’s storm played havoc with my head. We don’t have anything like what is going on in the South (those poor people) but today’s skies were dark and threatening at many points. And in the afternoon, around eleven thirty, I was getting some lab work done for a doctor’s appointment next week, when I started to feel off filling out the paperwork. My head got full and heavy and I just didn’t feel stable. Since I got so used to this few years ago, I don’t immediately freak out but half an hour later when I was having a conversation with fellow teachers and eating pizza, my head felt like someone was squeezing it pretty hard. My blood pressure was doing something and reacting to the storm. I went and got water and paced mostly, since I feel better if I move and not sit still. As soon as the rain started my head began to feel better.

I had to give final exams today in my writing classes, and I’m glad the rain started when it did, so I felt relatively ok to give the test and sit at the desk. I graded my history quizzes and a few history papers while proctoring. I gave more "C" on the papers than usual; I just got mad at bad writing. Topic sentences are not that hard. And I read some National Geographic May issue.

I’m going to get more sleep tonight and hopefully my head and balance can get back to normal.
I did wear a suit to work today, I love my suit.

In the evening I watched “Community” and then “Bones”. The good thing about not caring that much about “Bones” anymore is that I just sat there and cross stitched. I didn’t really have to pay attention to the screen too much. I did a little more than hour and a half of cross stitching since I really have to finish that blanket in a month and last two month I didn’t have much time to work on it. So lots of May cross stitching coming up.

Cross-stitch: tan, tan, tan – I’m going to just work all tan color until I do all of it – middle bear’s head and paws and some on Big Bear.

Best line from one of my college papers I read today
“The Citadel has pros that make it look respected and it also has its cons that make it look like an asshole.”

Grading day again so I got up at 6am. 12 papers today but I got it all done. And today I got a fresh batch of papers so it never stops. I did write a new question based on articles by Leila Ahmed “On Becoming an Arab” and Gladwell’s “The Power of Context.” I’m asking them to consider “How does context influence identity?” And, of course, we spent a significant amount of time in class discussing what ‘context’ means (even if they just wrote a whole paper on Gladwell and ‘context’ is in his title. We also looked at the different types of context like environmental or political and what ‘identity’ means. I talked my question over with Emily, one of the other instructors. I do always like discussing my question with other instructors just to talk it out and make sure it would work. There is a lot to be said for collaboration.

Because Ahmed’s article assumes a general knowledge of history, geography and terminology which most students lack (and I’m always surprised at the lacunas in their history and geography knowledge) we went over some terms that popped in the essay. Like the difference between ‘Arab’ and ‘Muslim’ and where Arabian Peninsula and even Egypt were on the map. (I brought my Historical Atlas for them to look at because they needed to know where Ottoman Empire was and explain what Ottoman Empire consisted off and many couldn’t even point to Egypt). We went over World War I, World War II, nationalism, Balfour Declaration, Zionism, propaganda and other terminology. One class asked me to talk about different types of Christianity because Copts were mentioned in the article. While a part of me thinks this type of article is hard for them because of all these terms another and stronger part says that this is the type of stuff they should read in college and that we must expect them to learn.

Every year, my friends and I get together during Passover (usually on a Saturday) and have a Passover Seder (which I run because I have the book and it matters most to me. I actually keep Passover, foodwise, unlike my friends). This Seder is one of my favorite traditions of the year and I always look forward to it because we all cook together and make this gigantic dinner. And it is really a multi-religious fest since the women are all Jewish and our partners are Christians and Muslim.

Since I’m the person who usually organizes things, and especially this event, I usually give out grocery lists and generally make sure this event happens. So today I sent out Seder Menu for general approval.

( Seder Menu )

In the evening, after all that grading I managed to watch some TV, including last night’s “Modern Family” on Hulu and "Community" and "Grey's Anatomy" on TV.

“Modern Family” I loved the table conversation. Two laugh outloud moments (I was watching the first half in my office at the end of my office hours since I was done with grading and needed a rest, and after one involuntary really loud laugh from me(Cam’s sarcastic line about getting another child from the Orient) I was glad it late enough for not many people to be hanging around the offices.

Ah, “Community”. You are such a nice fluffy show that understands the awesomeness of pop culture tv and movie references. No-no juice!

I had a minor panic over computer cord; I had to use a pen to move the inside where you connect the battery cord.

My jaw on the left side feels a bit stiff where it joins my skull. It’s annoying.

Today was a very long day.

6am to 6pm non-stop work today. I managed 18 papers – a record for me. I even got it down to a little over 20 minutes per paper sometimes, instead of usual 30. I need to keep this day in mind to motivate myself to pace with the grading. But one of my sections of 22 students is done. I don’t even care that I have more to do this weekend. And I taught two classes – thesis statement and connections. The only break I had from 6 am to 6 pm was shower and driving to school.

It was so nice and warm today, not that I got to enjoy it much

“Community” An excellent episode as usual and Levar Burton! I had the same fan reaction to him as Troy, one of the characters, did. I love this show. I watched “Bones” too but I have very little to say about it. I’m still watching that show because I’m used to it, but I no longer really care.

Exercise: 30 min walk
Cross stitch: blue for the second half of the book

Some shows and TV is just perfect for cross stitching like “Real Time with Bill Maher” I liked the discussion on the situation in Egypt.

Bear came over today and we watched the last few episodes of “Community.” I like rewatching them and it is fun to watch them together.

When Mama was dropping me off at Local College on the way to work last week, she noticed an ice skating ring on the way. I looked it up on the internet and saw that it was open on Fridays and weekends. So today my family and Bear all went to check it out. Papa had to pretty much wait in the car since he can’t skate and you needed to pay for entrance even if you don’t skate, which is silly. But we had a good time. It was not the best ice. They don’t clean it that much and rented skates are not the sharpest but I got a hang of it and could go all right. I roller blade a lot in the summer so I did need to adjust a tiny bit to ice skating but it is similar enough. It actually got warm since it is a covered rink. And it is close enough to the house that I might go again sometimes.

Bear and I watched “Dragonheart” in the evening; the DVD has been sitting on my desk for three weeks. This movie has sentimental value to me since this was the first movie I saw in an American movie theater. (Tom and Jerry cartoon a summer camp took up too does not count!) Papa took me for my 16th birthday. Of course, it has been so long since I seen it that all I remembered was Sean Connery was the dragon and they were conning the villagers. I really couldn’t remember much more, so it was like a brand new movie. Once I started watching I did sort of remembered how it would end. It was fun to see both Lupin and Lucius Malfoy in it. And the dragon CGI still holds up great – I know this was very innovative at the time. I kept thinking I knew the music – I’m sure it was reused many times.

Exercise: 40 min ice staking
Cross stitch: green and purple for cube

19 inches of snow. University only cancelled classes before 11:30 and as I teach after 1:30 I had to get to work. I did cancel the office hours in the late morning. So the day felt a bit surreal with no traffic and the whole world being white and clear.

( Some pictures of our snow )

In the morning I read and commented on a few close reading assignments. Many talked around the issue without clearly defining anything and many just paraphrased the whole two paragraphs and thought that it was analysis. Sigh. Run-ons also continue to be a problem. I was happy to see that one of my students from Basic Comp had the clearest paragraph that actually answered the assignment question and set up what the debate was in the fair use paragraphs. I was very proud of him. He definitely can write his ideas better now and I’d like to think that I had a little bit to do with it.

The classes went alright. We went over what makes a good paper, the structure of it. And the grading criteria. Then I actually made them take a piece of paper and draw a line on it, writing out how Jenkins would answer the assignment question and then how they would. I wanted them to make sure that the answer was not identical since that would not make a string thesis. I still know they will go for simple. My goal this semester is to get them to complicate their argument just a little bit.

First two minutes of today’s “Community” were so funny I couldn’t stop laughing. I need to rewatch it tomorrow. Good episode of Bones too. ( Bones )

Yemen joins the growing list of countries rioting against their governments .

Teaching.

Today were the last classes of the semester. I will still see most of my students on Monday when they will come to pick up their folder with their grades for final office hour but today was the official last class. It was also the final exam day. As I was walking to the first class this morning, it really hit me that this is the last time I would have to walk to this particular classroom for a while. Usually, since preparing for folder review is intense and lots of work, I don’t even think about the last week that much, but it did occur to me today. This was a good semester in terms of teaching. I liked my students and while I did prefer the first section because of the room and the types of discussion, I never dreaded the second class (this did happen in the past). And this semester, I felt so comfortable in this course. I finally have a good solid handle on how to teach it.

I graded six papers throughout the day and all the final exams for one of my classes. For some reason I’m sluggish in grading papers – they are taking me longer than they should. I think I’m just leaving too many comments.

Final exams really reflect how the students are doing in their last papers – it is actually fun to see. Their exams reflect their personalities too. One person will fail because of his final exam, damn it. He was starting to pass the papers. But he is so not ready for Expos. (He won’t really fail – the students who gets a NP – non pass, get deregistered and the school pretends they took a lower lever class and then they retake this class next semester).

The best quote from a final exam: “Similarly, yet at the same time completely opposite..” Yeah.


National Geographic

With breakfast and with lunch to distract myself from all the grading I read the December issue of National Geographic. There was a nice pullout poster of the construction of Barcelona’ Sagrada Familia Cathedral. Great detail about the natural influences that Gaudi used to inspire him in the design. I visited the cathedral in the spring of 2000 and it was very impressive. (Barcelona impressed me in general and I just loved all the Gaudi work). It is fun to read about a place where I actually been.

I also read two articles. One article was about Afghan women and one was about the archeology in Israel that is trying to uncover sites relating to King David and King Solomon (1000 BCE). (I also read an article on swans but that was short and rather silly.

The article on Afghan women, which was mostly photographs, made me very emotional. I’m very grateful that I was born in the country that always portrayed women as equal to men and capable of doing any job. And while the former Soviet countries have many gender expectations and issues that I don’t really have any more since I came to America and studied women and gender and feminism, I am grateful that I was born there. When I grew up, I didn’t know any mothers who stayed at home with their children after one year – all had to work (the maternity leave policies were more generous). There was not a culture of perfect motherhood as the end all of womanhood. And all women in my family and my environment were educated. I just can’t imagine growing up in such a restricted culture as Afghani women do.

I really liked the article on state of archeology in Israel. Archeological discoveries that examine the time of David and Solomon are complicated by the political implications. Right-wings might want to use any discoveries to claim more territory and left-wings might ignore archeological discoveries or want to disclaim them for the same reason. There are also those who take the Bible very seriously and want to find the sites that really proved the existence of a large kingdom in 10th century BCE and others who think Bible was more reflecting of a later Assyrian age and that if David and Solomon really existed they were not in charge of a sophisticated large civilization. (The was a discovery in the 90s of a stone that included “House of David” in its inscriptions – it is the proof that David was a real person.) Basically this article recounts the archeological disputes between Israel Finkelstein, the proponent of “low chronology”, who thinks that there wasn’t a great united kingdom in the 10th century BCE (personally, he values the myth of David, despite this) and three archeologists who make recent discoveries: Eilat Mazar who thinks she found Palace of David, Yosef Garfinkel who claims to have found a 10th century BCE Judean city found in the Bible near where David and Goliath fought and Tom Levy who thinks he discovered Solomon’s mines. This article is an interesting look at the profession of archeology and religious and political forces driving work and interpretations.

TV

“Community” I watched the stop-motion animated Christmas special as told from Abed’s perspective. It is really disturbing to think of why Abed is seeing the world in stop-motion animation and wants to discover the meaning of Christmas. But I did love it. The pterodactyl and random songs. The stop-motion eye roll of Jeff when Professor Duncan talks about his psychology credentials. I love this show for just pulling something like this.

This is link to a very smart college essay (posted online) that uses “Community” to examine how we use pop culture in 21st century relationships. This is a fun essay even you don’t watch the show since it assumes that the reader never saw the show and explains who the characters are. (and more people really should watch this show, I highly recommended. It is definitely my favorite comedy. Lots of snarky stuff. This show is awesome and hits all the right buttons).

Library book saga – so with the deadline to return the recalled library book that I can’t find on the horizon and wanting to avoid $5 a day library fees, I went to the main campus this morning. First, I went to check my office and then library stacks since it happened before that the book I couldn’t find was already in the library. No such luck this time. So I went to speak to the guy at the check-out desk. He gave me a name of his supervisor who was in another library all day. I had to go to work and didn’t have the time to track him then but I resigned myself to the idea that I would just have to replace the book. After my afternoon office hours were over, I went back to the other library on the main campus to talk to the supervisor guy. He actually was very professional and knew what he was doing, which I appreciated. He looked everything up, made the calls (one of the people he checked the price with did not know about the old catalog that all librarians used to use to price a book. He was a bit thrown by this lack of knowledge). In the end, I have to pay $63 - $21 for the book that the library will order and $42 for the processing fee. A bit cheaper than buying the book myself on line with a smaller processing fee. I have the last chance to look for the book this weekend or bring in the check on Tuesday. This is annoying but I did lose this book somewhere. At least I won’t have to pay any late fees since I’m taking care of this in a timely manner.

I was tired this morning, so I was a bit sluggish in my classes. I did manage to talk to most of the students about their papers. Most like the assignment – they are writing about remittances (immigrants sending money back to their home village) and what it means for the home community. I’m trying to get them to complicate their thesis.

I did buy tickets to Harry Potter for tomorrow since Bear and I made plans to go and I didn’t want to worry it would be sold out. That cheered me up this morning since I was having a crappy day.

“Community” continues to be hysterical. They are excellent on farce. I love this show.

( Burn Notice S4E14 )

Caprica will air the rest of the episodes in the US on Jan 4 from 6pm on as a marathon.

Fun brain teasers and optical illusions .

Before my classes this morning, I looked at the collections of essays in the Expos book, which I will probably teach from next semester. I haven’t taught Expos in a while; I’ve been doing Basic Comp lately since I like it more, but I can’t be picky. Since I’ve taught it last, a new edition of the book came out. So as I was browsing it I discovered to my delight this article:

Henry Jenkins, 'Why Heather Can Write: Media Literacy and the Harry Potter Wars"

This is the official description of it:
"Young people are immersed in technology, texting friends, chatting online, wandering virtual realities, and surfing the Web. Does this immersion work against literacy, or does it redefine what it means to be literate in the twenty-first century"

This article is basically about the Harry Potter fandom and how that works with the old media. And a big part of the article is about fan fiction and how it affects writing and how it can teach children to write better. There is a discussion of beta readers too. The article is about the conversion culture of old media that is dependent on hierarchy and a new more egalitarian media of the internet. And the article also has a large section on censorship attempts and how some Christians are actually using the books in the positive way to advance their values. (This was published in 2006)

I am so teaching this article next semester. Harry Potter was my first internet fandom, it is what really introduced me to fan fiction so this would be fun for me to teach and see what 18 year old think of it (they did after all read the books at a very different age than me. I was 21-27 through the series and I read for adult characters more than for the kids.)


In class today, the students turned in their Paper 3 and did some proofreading and then we did some close reading of the next article by Lenore Look. I was thinking of doing more grammar but we actually got into the first section of the essay well. The class went really well. They do have hard time picking out themes from the paragraphs they read; they get a small detail but not big picture.


Since this was Halloween weekend I was spending it with Bear at his house (Both of us love this holiday). So I took two trains for a very long ride to his place. By the time I got to his house I was falling asleep. I did get into some conversation with other people on the train, mostly because I finished one book and pulled out the second one, which was read half-way. The old gentleman across from me, who was also reading, found it amusing.

I finished “Theatre” by W. Somerset Maugham that Papa gave me for my birthday. I give it four out of five. The prose style is excellent; the man can write. And I especially enjoyed the last third of the book, since the subtle ironic humor was really strong here. The story is about a middle age actress Julia who has an affair with a young man and the repercussions on her emotional well being and her ability to act. She has an affable husband with whom she started a theatre where she works and one son, but she is actress first and foremost. She acts not just in the theater but in her life as well. I really didn’t like Tom, the young man who had an affair with Julia, mostly because he is using her to advance in society, but I wasn’t sure if he was actually self aware about that. Or maybe the perception of him changes with Julia’s views of him. I did rather liked Michael, Julia’s husband, they had a nice real marriage and partnership that wasn’t really about sex and they were certainly best of friends. But Julia not knowing what is real or not was fun. The more I think about the book the more I like it, but I certainly did not felt anxious to finish it or to pick it up like I just had to know what happened. So 4 out of 5.

Bear and I had dinner with his parents and sister and then we had a Halloween TV night – rewatch of “Community” and “Modern Family” Halloween episodes and then “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” I got Bear into “Community” – he doesn’t watch TV that much, but he watches TV with me when I show him something. He certainly watched all my favorite “Buffy” episodes without actually having the sense of the show narrative. He does like ‘Community” a lot. This was also the first time Bear saw “Rocky Horror” and he had this look on this face like he couldn’t believe anything can be that campy and weird. But it was certainly perfect for Halloween and the start of the Halloween weekend.