Bearshorty's musings

I had a dentist appointment this morning to get a cleaning and my dentist is near my parents' house. So I got up early and took a subway and bus to get there. I had to wait an hour, which was annoying, and then, this time, the cleaning really hurt. Usually it is just bothersome but fine, but today was just terrible. My teeth are still feeling it. I got fillings last week and it went much better than today, and usually it is the other way around.

One thing I knew I could do near my parents' house, other than go visit them, was to do some shopping, since they live near two shopping plazas. I needed to get a toy for Galya's birthday in June (she is turning 2) and there is a Toys R Us right there. Most of the fun toys were 3+, though. Next year will be much more fun. But I think I found a good one - it is a little xylophone/piano combination for toddlers. Then I stopped by at Kmart to get cheap summer shorts to wear at home (I have home clothes and clothes for outside and I don't mix the two. It is the way I grew up and it is weird to me to be in jeans in the house, for example. Or shoes.) And, finally, there is a store where I can get greeting cards for 50% off - I needed four of them (birthdays and baby showers coming up). I got my shopping list done - the only thing left is a present for Bear's Mom. She is turning 70 in June.

After all the shopping, I walked to my parents' house. My Dad took a day off, since he has extra days left over he needs to use and my parents are in the middle of renovations of their top floor. He was needed to help the guy who was installing their shower today. Plus, he knew I was coming over today. With the renovations, I can't stay overnight at their house right now - they gave away my old bed and couch even but I thought I would hang out there until after dinner. But I only stayed for lunch, as my parents wanted to drive to Brooklyn to look at a few warehouse to find their wood railings and shower shelves. I went to a few stores with them, and after they drove me home. So I ended up cooking some pasta for dinner instead.

Netflix put up "Struck by Lightning" this week (the movie Chris Colfer wrote and starred in) and I watched it today. I ended up really liking it (Alison Jenney is amazing) and it even got to me in the end. I also watched "Modern Family" finale - which was pretty emotional at points. This season was not that good but this show still certainly has its moments.

In the weird things I read today column was the news that Amazon is getting into fanfic business and got licenses from a few TV shows. It is just such a weird thing - as a writer, I would not want to give my copyright up and, as a reader, I can just get some much for free.

I've been reading a few articles lately about students loans - there seems to be a major discussion in the media lately. And it has been really depressing to read comments who mostly want to push toward 'useful' degrees that don't include humanities. And I find it sad. As a culture humanities are important. Learning English and history is not a waste of time - not just because of analytical, writing and reading skills but because wide knowledge and rich culture made a society. Why is knowledge not a good thing of itself today? I understand that people want a return on their investment but college should be more than just a path to money. Now, I never had any college debt - it was a combinations of a State School, scholarships, my parents and graduating in three years instead of four. And I understand when many get frustrated with debt but college should be about more than that.

Long day, as usual. I was going to grade in the evening, but after so much teaching and prepping to teach, and office hours, and reading some rough drafts and basically working from 7am to 6pm, I just have no energy. So I caught up to blogging instead and I’m going to read a little more.

I gave a lecture on Mughal Empire in my Global History class. The Department Chair emailed me last week asking if she could come observe me teach, which was not really a question. This is the first time I was observed teaching in years and years, and certainly the first time since I started teaching at Local College a year ago. I also knew very little about Mughal Empire until last week, when I started working on the lecture. But I think the lecture went very well. I did background for India, Babur and Akbar. There was Powerpoint, a video clip for students to watch and the discussion of two primary sources. So good variety. It is not like I was teaching differently or anything – I’m pretty set in my methods. And I don’t really get nervous teaching but I was a little more hyperaware because the Chair was sitting there. And this is my favorite class this semester, which I really did not expect.

So I did order that summer type white dress from that Chinese website. We’ll see what happens. I have no expectations whatsoever.

I didn’t want to watch “House” today. Too tired. So I didn’t. I’ll just catch up to it in a few weeks. I used to look forward to it so much but not lately. And there is only half a season left. I also don’t want to watch “HIMYM” anymore. I think “Glee”, “Grimm,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Modern Family” are the only full season shows I’m interested in anymore. The rest are seasonal.

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.

49 out of 50 states have snow. That’s the whole South. And some people don’t want to see that the weather is changing. We got a good amount of snow but now as much as in post-Christmas blizzard. Since we aren’t actually blocked in our house, it is a plus.

‘Got Medieval’ has a great response to Palin’s use of ‘blood libel’ and the subsequent Jewish WTF response to that.

I turned on TV at 9pm (while still doing the free stepping thing in Wii – I do like the option of watching tv while technically exercising) to see “Modern Family” and ended up watching Obama’s speech from Arizona memorial service. It was a good speech. I really liked the part that we should aim our government to be like the little girl saw it. It was a bit unsettling to go to “Modern Family” comedy right after that for a few minutes. Good show, though, as usual.

I had my sonogram at the urologist’s office today. Everything looks fine so I’m happy with that. I really liked the sonogram technician. She kept up fun dialogue and generally made it fun. One more test on Friday.

Exercise: 36 min on Wii. I really like the advance bicycle course and I think I got over the virtual dog running after me. (I have a phobia for real dogs; I’m usually ok with dogs in pictures and such but first time I did the bike game when the virtual dog started running after me I got very uncomfortable. But my brain is back to seeing it as not a real dog.)

Cross stitch: tan on the little bear’s face and paws and some light brown for his ears.

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.

I actually watched “Community” in real time. Usually I prefer to watch both “Community” and “Modern Family,” the two funniest freshman comedies from this season on Hulu. There are less commercials and it is faster to watch, especially with breakfast. But this time there is nothing much to do. Ok episode, not as funny as last time but the Glee joke just made me laugh and laugh. The main character just doesn’t understand the appeal of “Glee” (which I second). And that made the episode for me. Overall, this season has been good for comedies.

The trailer from the next Shrek movie reveals the plot to be pretty much a direct vengeance demon from “Buffy” plot. Shrek makes a wish that goes terribly wrong. But that actually not a bad plot.