mean regression

2005-03-04T08:22:00.000-08:00

back after being really sick for what seems like ages. so sick, i stopped smoking. if you know me, you know that's a very big deal. other big deal things happening, rather challenging big deal things. but anyways, why can't people seem to seperate out all the various attacks against ward churchill? UC seems to be going after him based on his eichmann comment, mostly. they never really cared

2005-02-06T13:21:00.000-08:00

ward churchill recently resigned his position as department chair of ethnic studies at university of colorado due to protests and death threats against him over an essay (now intergated into a book) he wrote about the sept 11 attacks against the pentagon and world trade center. hamilton college just cancelled a speaking engagement there by him over what its administrators called "credible

2005-02-04T13:11:00.000-08:00

what kind of university doesn't own one scantron machine? the kind i work for. anyways, i had the occasion to check in with a couple of my classes about the wonderful bits of wisdom that harvard president larry summers has imparted to some of us. in one class, mixed level, about 20 students had heard. in another, only two had. all mostly science majors. and mostly women. here's my plea.

2005-01-31T08:19:00.000-08:00

back after a little hiatus. i've been busy. among other things, i've been grading papers by a class full of students known as SKOWLS. (the acronym stands for Stupid Kids of White Loser Supremacists.) i don't know if it's something about this particular school, or if it's the luck of the draw, but the chemistry of this class is the suck. it's like tom metzger and all his kinfolk decided to

2005-01-23T08:49:00.000-08:00

Punch Line Meme from adm Copy and replace any you don't know with a different one in bold. 1. And boy, are my arms tired 2. The backstoke 3. One's a cunning linguist 4. I'm looking for the man who shot my paw 5. None. The invisible hand does it. <- for techstep 6. Trying to get an adequate sample size 7. George, it's pronounced "quiche" 8. No, frayed knot 9. Yesterday, we were campaigning.

2005-01-21T15:51:00.000-08:00

i heard that the the not one damn dime day boycottt had an extremely strong effect on bush administration policy and the u.s. is now extending handshakes of peace to iran, and syria! what a great idea that boycott was! bush also announced that his people will begin drafting national health care insurance legislation and lobbying for national living wage pay! that boycott sure was a great idea,

2005-01-19T07:42:00.000-08:00

damn it feels good to be a gangster. we watched office spaceso many times this weekend, just cause we could and just cause it's funny. we watched it in slow-mo with the zoom on, even. on monday night i looked under my bed and took out the only thing under there, a power drill (don't ask) and installed some blinds that have been hanging around the back porch for six months. i tried to twirl

2005-01-13T11:31:00.000-08:00

THIS IS A TEST OF THE EMERGENCY ADJUNCT SYSTEM what would you do if you were a functionary in an organization that depended on a certain of class of people who, at the slightest peep from you, can produce excellent, rigorous, interesting courses from scratch in one day? how would you treat these people if you knew that if it weren't for them, your inefficient ass would be plastered all over the

2005-01-12T10:23:00.000-08:00

palestinians had a very, extremely, free election. uh huh. i don't think this kind of activity has anything to do with how people vote. nope.

2005-01-09T09:05:00.000-08:00

way back when, during the time that michael moore was constructing fahrenheit 911, he decided to use about a third of the run time of the film to create a tenuous case against some saudis and then leave the issue open with no concusion - because no conclusion could logically be made from the evidence he presented. nevertheless, he decided to go with it, leaving the seeds sown for a nice full

2005-01-08T08:04:00.000-08:00

in the tradition of friday confessions, i have something to say. a few weeks ago on an early saturday morning i was surfing through the channels trying to get a weather report, and i came across this gorgeous specimen of a man. ever since, every saturday morning, i get up early to watch his show. it's a hideous piece of work: it leaves nothing up to the imagination of its (supposedly) young

2005-01-05T13:13:00.000-08:00

okay, the furnace is fixed again and i can get back to work. when it was broken my fingers were too cold to type. i didn't know there were plastic kid toys in my furnace. apparently there was something wrong with the ignition transformer. i have this obsession about elegantly scheduling my courses. i try to maximize the elegance level for each individual course, and then just as critically

2005-01-03T14:25:00.000-08:00

this term is shaping up nicely in that i don't have any stressful commutes to negotiate between classes. last fall's commute was scary. there was this stretch of road i had to book down, it was one of those roads right along the side of a ridge with no guard rail. it regularly gets icy, even when other roads don't ice up. none of that this winter. and that's a big effing relief. so, i made

2004-12-29T09:50:00.000-08:00

from sukaynah A group of bloggers set up a website that provides information on how you can help aid victims of the tsunami in South and Southeast Asia: http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/ How you can help 1. Please pass this URL around. 2. You can use it to post any info you have on: where to send money, what kind of help is needed, aid organisations, helplines, infolines, email addresses, phone

2004-12-25T13:26:00.000-08:00

dogma is still funny as ever. ny friend gave me one of the most thoughtful, excellent solstamas gifts ever, and one i really need: a gift certificate for a massage. i can't wait. northern lattidudes joke of the day: this guy goes to see the doctor on december 21st (also known as techstep's birthday and the winter solstice.) the doctor tells the guy she has some good news and some bad

2004-12-21T07:03:00.000-08:00

for red head dread: Spinach Pies (Fatayer Sbinakh) Before you go to bed, take two pounds of chopped spinach out of the freezer to defrost. Get some sleep. Make the dough: Dissolve one packet of yeast in a quarter cup of water. Ad a pinch of sugar to feed the yeast. Pour three good cups of white (whatever you do, don't use whole wheat) flour in a big bowl. Add the dissolved yeast. Stir.

2004-12-20T10:10:00.000-08:00

what the hell? my opinion of netflix just dropped down another notch. the first drop was from them not stocking a decent selection of certain foreign films. but now i've discovered the mother of all fauxes pas, and this will be their ultimate downfall, they don't carry the muppet christmas carol. how is that a good business decision on their part? how can they diss kermie and miss piggy like

2004-12-19T08:05:00.000-08:00

someone in the family said yesterday that all she wanted to do was stay home in her pj's and watch movies. so here's the log, a combination of netflix and network tv. the playlist couldn't be much trashier. chapelle's show philadelphia crossroads remember the titans hanging up the last two we watched at the same time, which didn't take much brain power, actually, none of the above took much

2004-12-17T08:08:00.000-08:00

cue james brown. i feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel good how do i know fall term is over? because the bazillion pound weight is off my shoulders, and i have a list of things to get done vite. i gotta mail crap, shop, bake, schedule appointments, do the syllabi for next term, make solstice gifts, clean the house, clean the house, clean the house, prune the hedges, and rake the leaves. my master plan was to

2004-12-16T13:54:00.000-08:00

a math quiz! Congratulations! You are the First Fundamental Theorem of Calculus The big guns! Most people go over you in high school calculus but fail to see your intrinsic beauty, but you know you're great. Which Fundamental Theorem of Mathematics Are You? brought to you by Quizilla

2004-12-14T10:43:00.000-08:00

how is it possible that i can have such a bad case of diarrhea of the mouth while my foot is so firmly lodged in it?

2004-12-12T09:06:00.000-08:00

you know that nasaly voice of the grownups talking in all the old peanuts movies? waaah waah waaaaaah that's what my students' papers sound like to me right now. oh! the lack of creativity! first-year comp people, what are you teaching your students? this is all your fault! best comment i didn't write on a paper so far this term: thank you for this! i was dealing with a stubborn bout of

2004-12-10T11:52:00.000-08:00

cows are not male, they're female, for chrissakes. alrighty then. when magical trevor starts to piss me off, i know i better get to work and get this damn grading done. i like doing it, there's just so fricking much of it.

2004-12-10T07:46:00.000-08:00

fall term trend analysis of 100 students polled, the number who used the following excuses... travel plans during an exam: 4 sick or dead grandparents: 3 stolen backpacks: 2 dead computers: 2 broken cars: 2 sick friend: 1 dead friend: 1 sick dog: 1 sick kids: too numerous to count and i've noticed a new trend: students who refuse to turn in the term paper. maybe i'm just behind the

2004-12-04T13:03:00.000-08:00

so many so called pundits are predicting that after arafat's death, if that bad plo doeesn't replace arafat with another bad guy, there will be a lovely harmonic peace between iasrael and palestinians. what this fails to take into account is that israeli policy is imperialist and colonialist . take for example the info in this letter that's making the rounds: A list of phone numbers is at the

2004-11-30T15:02:00.000-08:00

so i'm a flasher now. buy nothing day was very very good to me. i got a 50 dollar flash drive for ten bucks. i needed it REALLY BAD. none of my schools would put zip drives in our offices, and only one school had a zip drive in one of the classrooms. i don't have a cd burner, so i was always emailing myself sttuff and wondering how it was going to come out on the other side (deformatted,

2004-11-23T13:47:00.000-08:00

SPECIAL PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT email from my friend who works in a clinic: The Centers for Disease Control has issued a warning about a new virulent strain of sexually transmitted disease. This disease is contracted through dangerous and high risk behavior. The disease is called Gonorrhea Lecthim (pronounced "gonna-ree-a-lect-him"). Many victims have contracted it after having been

2004-11-22T08:09:00.000-08:00

when i took little binky to the mall this weekend for some green sparkly shoelaces, just for the hell of it i tried on some boots. even though they were kind of clunky and looked sort of manly, they were cute and comfortable, and had enough of a bottom on them to hedge myself against flying across the room and landing on my face during a lecture. i was so tempted to spend the heating oil money

2004-11-13T08:09:00.000-08:00

saw an old colleague the other day. he gave me shit for the nikes i was wearing, the hand-me-downs my neighbor gave me after she saw my old shoes, the ones she gave me four years ago, were literally falling apart. the last pair of sneakers i bought were chucky t high tops, before converse got bought out the first time. i have asthma, but i can't afford to pay for the doctor's appointment i

2004-11-08T11:19:00.000-08:00

i have a love-hate relationships with study guides. on the one hand, they really help students focus their study time. on the other hand, i include everythng on them from texts, lectures, and classwork. i might as well just tell the students to study everything. in the past that's what i did, and it worked for some students, but other students seem to do better if i write down what "

2004-11-06T13:30:00.000-08:00

don't worry, be happy. the presidential election results were crushing, more so for some than for others. before the u.s. was even a country, people have been organizing against tyrrany here. it's never stopped. some communities are more used to dragging up off the ground, brushing off, and getting those dukes back up than others. hopefully this latest selection will not dicourage relative

2004-11-03T11:35:00.000-08:00

bad news. the democratic and republican candidates were pretty close on many issues, but they differed on reproductive choice. the republicans have the executive office, the senate, the house, rehnquist is sick, and a few other old-timers on the supreme court are poised to retire soon. what reproductive freedoms we do have right now are in big jeopardy. i'm scared, terrified, for my kids

2004-10-30T08:11:00.000-07:00

i'm trying to extract a large amount of data from a website and it keeps giving me an error message. without thinking about it too much, i started singing this song to myself (to the tune of that moldy oldie cherry oh baby) god damnit god damnit oh baby i can't get this thing to work been trying to do it all morning this thing is such a jerk halloween is excellent. i'm dressing up as medusa.

2004-10-28T11:31:00.000-07:00

last night i watched the winning game of the world series with some kids. by the sixth inning i was ready to run out and jump on some cars and light all the trash cans in the neighborhood on fire. however, one of the kids, a great athlete who throws an 86 mph pitch, told me i better put my stomping boots and lighter away. he was rooting for the red sox too, but, he said, anything could happen.

2004-10-27T09:24:00.000-07:00

some search terms that have led people to link to this blog: caca what does it mean jah dental pain regression to the mean sick of adjuncting adjunct hell after winter break, if all goes as expected, i'll be teaching (a number of) courses at (a number of) different institutions. i'll have to have office hours at (a number of) different places, have to check (a number of) different voicemails

2004-10-27T07:45:00.000-07:00

five more truer words were never spoken: pedro martinez is damn hot

2004-10-19T13:00:00.000-07:00

there's a kerry sign in my front yard. every morning when i see it, i want to take it down and rip it up but i ultimately leave it where it is. my original plan was to add to the bottom of the sign so it would say something like border:1px solid black;font-size:12px;"> kerry edwards 2004 border:1px solid black;font-size:12px;"> i suppose but i never got around to it. more

2004-10-17T14:18:00.000-07:00

today is a day for meme. this one is from making contact: 1. What is your favorite word? ready 2. What is your least favorite word? failure 3. What turns you on? badassedness 4. What turns you off? party politics 5. What sound or noise do you love? my kids doing the dishes 6. What sound or noise do you hate? my kids breaking the dishes 7. What is your favorite curse word? bloody fucking hell 8.

2004-10-13T21:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Student, Realize that I only use that salutation by way of convention. You are neither. I will not give you credit for the test items you are challenging. There is nothing wrong with the wording of the items. They have yielded reliable and valid results many times now. I taught the material well to your class. You need to realize that you either need to study more or come to the

2004-10-08T15:35:00.000-07:00

npr's fresh air ran a couple of old interviews with tom waits today. i tuned in when it was about halfway over so i didn't hear the introduction and when i heard the interviews were repeats my heart sunk down to the gas pedal. i thought it was one of those eulogy shows they run whenever someone dies. i surprised myself by being so upset. i don't usually freak out when a celebrety dies.

2004-10-04T07:23:00.000-07:00

cool. there's a work/family blog conference hosted by laura at apt 11d. professor bitch is also tearing up cyberspace with her posts about kids and society.

2004-10-02T13:45:00.000-07:00

work journal i found out last week that the new place i'm teaching at assigns mentors to all its new hires. this seems forced to me. i was a mentor in an official mentoring program once, and while it was nice and utilitarian, most of the time the mentors and protegees didn't quite click. i couldn't have asked for a better grad school mentor, but that's the thing, i didn't ask for him. the

2004-09-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

this info, from projest censored needs more play: Civilian populations in Afghanistan and Iraq and occupying troops have been contaminated with astounding levels of radioactive depleted and non-depleted uranium as a result of post-9/11 United States’ use of tons of uranium munitions. Researchers say surrounding countries are bound to feel the effects as well. they are using nuclear weapons.

2004-09-29T10:08:00.000-07:00

there's nothing like teaching fall term at a community college. everyone is so eager and hopeful. the students are there for their own purposes, not just because they're fulfilling some expectations of them going to college, not just because they haven't figured out what to do with their lives yet, not just because they can afford it so they might as well. people are there for professional

2004-09-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

one of the sections i'm teaching this fall is at an institution that mandates we use a certain textbook. it's an okay enough book, but i don't prefer to teach with it. it doesn't compliment my lecture style, orientation, pedagogical approach, or theoretical approach. it's one of those hegemonic deals that comes with lecture notes, overheads, test bank, and pre-recorded lectures. well, not

2004-09-24T09:27:00.000-07:00

i'm imagining a city. this city is a one hour drive to many other cities. each city has a public university and they all have at least a few private colleges. there are lots of community colleges and private two year schools all within the radius. i'm imagining a good chunk of the adjuncts at these institutions organized in one cross-campus union. i'm imagining what would happen if all the

2004-09-23T07:20:00.000-07:00

james zogby is so lucky. he can do polls and test whatever theories he likes. i have a theory. it's about the bush administration's october plan. Specifically, the plan calls for "aggressive - even obvious - surveillance" techniques to be used on a short list of people suspected of being terrorist sympathizers, but who have not committed a crime. Other "persons of interest," including

2004-09-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

a bunch of years ago i was involved in a pretty bad accident and suffered alot of injuries. i've pretty much resigned myself to living with chronic pain and my body not being able to do some of the things it used to do. that's been hard, and getting used to my face looking different has been more of a challenge than i ever thought it would be. yesterday i did something that i haven't been

2004-09-11T13:44:00.000-07:00

he has to be doing this kind of stuff on purpose in order to court the mook vote. no one could be this stupid: "Too many ob/gyns," Bush explained, "aren't able to practice their love with women all across the country."

2004-09-08T18:13:00.000-07:00

my kid, who is brilliant, really brilliant, can also be ultraefficiently unmotivated at times. she's always been pragmatic, even when it comes to how she spends her time accomplishing (or not) a task she needs to accomplish. she told me this story the other day: one day last year, her teacher was out sick and the sub gave the students an in-class assignment. each kid was to write a paper.

2004-09-06T08:46:00.000-07:00

who's your daddy? White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said yesterday that President Bush views America as a ''10-year-old child" in need of the sort of protection provided by a parent.

2004-09-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

i love the new campus i'm teaching at. the grounds are gorgeous and lush, well kept but not fussy, and the views are spectacular. the only problem is that hardly anyone there smokes. gone are the days where i could suck down a smoke while running from one building to another on an urban campus and then toss the butt, hayduke style, wherever it was convenient. it's kind of stressful. it's

2004-08-24T07:55:00.000-07:00

i'm dreading going to campus today. i haven't done any of the administrative stuff i need to do yet: set up email, voicemail, webspace, library access, get keys... i guess it will be fun to decorate my very own office (something i haven't had since i began ajuncting) but i don't know how much energy i should put into it because i don't yet know if i'll be there again after winter break. i'd

2004-08-18T18:10:00.000-07:00

i still know how to play the spoons. yes, i am procrastinating. syllabi syllabi syllabi souds like lullaby. maybe i will take a nap.

2004-08-17T08:15:00.000-07:00

this is fucking ridiculous. i'm stopping this this round of resume targeting and broadcasting as of now. i get my resume tweaked by professionals once a year. my resume's pretty good, both aesthetically and content-wise. i've come to the conclusion that there's one thing that keeps the hr hacks from calling me: one of my degrees, which is ethnic studiesish. this is yayhooville. people in

2004-08-12T08:08:00.000-07:00

top five reasons that using alot of hair styling products is bad: 1. they aggravate your asthma 2. they take alot of time to use 3. they make your hands greasy 4. when you sweat, all that gunk becomes moist and leaves a weird kind of ring around the collar 5. when you skip a day, you look like albert einstein having an exceptionally bad hair day to color or not to color - one of the great

2004-08-04T09:07:00.000-07:00

here's what i've been doing lately: -teaching two classes this summer. really poor pay, lots of prep, no prep time, great kids. -attempting to keep my own kids busy. dance classes start for the youngest this saturday. -going to the gym 5x per week. feels good. takes up lots of time. but feels good. -organizing the house. the goal was to get all unused clothes, books, and other

2004-07-25T12:47:00.000-07:00

and now, ladies and germs, i present to you, single teen mom extraordinaire, linda armstrong. i''ll be back blogging again soon, probably within a week or two. i've been pretty busy, what with working one teaching job and, of course, as always, pounding the pavement looking for a real full time job with benefits, which is a full time job in and of itself.

2004-07-14T08:18:00.000-07:00

i heard robert jensen interviewed on the radio the other day. his critique of michael moore's fahrenheit 911 is definitely headed in the right direction. a little light though. more later.

2004-07-03T09:51:00.000-07:00

the other night, i had a dream that i was doing something, i can't remember what, in a pair of camo shorts. the next day, i went to a big big sale at the local store to look for summer interview suits and saw on the 75% off clearance rack a pair of capris in washed out olive green with a distressed looking blue print. they were kind of camo looking so they caught my eye. i tried them on and

2004-06-30T08:05:00.000-07:00

of the reams of 100% cotton, white, 24 pound, watermarked, exceptional quality resume paper i have sent out to job openings that i am pretty well qualified for, i've only gotten one hit so far. i got a call for the second interview last night and i have a feeling i will get the gig. it's really part time, the pay is stinky, and of course there are no benefits. i need the dough, but if i get

2004-06-22T08:58:00.000-07:00

"When you don't have self seteem, you will hesitate before you do anything in your life. You will hesitate to go for the job you wanna go for. You will hesitate to ask for a raise. You will hesitate to call yourself an American. You will hesitate to report a rape. You will hesitate to defend yourself when you are discriminated against because of your race, your sexuality, your size, your gender.

2004-06-18T07:56:00.000-07:00

HYPOTHESIS the ivory tower, and i do mean ivory, is stupid. this system of increasing reliance on adjunct labor is going to end up eating academia up from the inside. potential adjuncts are going to begin to see more and more that giving the job one's all, one's heart and soul, is nothing but an excercise in excruciating self flagellation because when an adjunct can give all she's got, and do

2004-06-15T08:30:00.000-07:00

waiting is the hardest part of this week. grades are all done and submitted. when i was at that concert the other night, i realized that i hadn't had the time to sit, just sit and listen to music for a really really long time. adjuncting a full load at more than one campus for peanuts and no benefits, no teaching assistant support, single (solo) parenting, and being poor takes up alot of

2004-06-11T09:06:00.000-07:00

imagine. imagine if just a couple of them got the kind of nationally televised multimedia tear-jerking send off to the great hereafter that bergermeister meisterberger got. imagine if there were a national day of mourning declared for every one of them. imagine what would happen if all the civilians who have lost their lives to this war got one too. imagine if all the people who have lost

2004-06-09T20:34:00.000-07:00

been a long time since i rock and rolled i have been so happy lately, just plain old happy, like i was before i fell into that foul and degrading spell of unemployment. i walk around with a zip in my step, cracking jokes just like the good old days. the timbre of my laugh has even changed. it's more hearty and satisfying now than it's been in a long lonely lonely lonely lonely lonely time.

2004-05-28T22:29:00.000-07:00

that gene simmons can kiss my grits.

2004-05-25T08:24:00.000-07:00

i got some evaluations from last quarter back yesterday and they were pretty good. i hope i can make a career out of teaching. there is nothing i want to do more than to facilitate learning. meanregression, what do you want to do with your life? i want to use my talents to bring about more critical thinking in society. meanregression, what will you do if you can't get a job teaching? i don't

2004-05-16T08:25:00.000-07:00

i fell asleep with the idiot box on last night waiting to see mary kate and ashley. I woke up to tim russert interviewing colin powell on meet the press. russert was asking some relatively insipid questions and powell was answering them like a politician in a hot seat. suddenly the camera panned away from powell onto a palm tree and russert's voice could be heard saying how innappropriate that

2004-05-08T11:44:00.000-07:00

what i did all week: -solidified the bones of a paper i'm writing to present at next year's convention -sought mentorship from someone Very Important -seriously considered writing my memoir, yes i am special enough that people would buy it -made alot of study guides -strongarmed the children into picking up the swarm of q-tips migrating all over the house -cooked a vegan stew that would rock

2004-05-01T07:52:00.000-07:00

may day. here in yayhooville, the elite white vanguard of official activism is being called on its assumed and unacknowledged priviege. but they're not hearing it. someone pulled me aside the other day to ask me advice about how to address the horrible sexism going on in her life perpetrated by people that should supposedly know much, much better. someone else asked me how she could help

2004-04-22T09:17:00.000-07:00

my weekend post got eaten by the blogspot ogre, i guess. last week was filled with angst and surprise Very Important Tasks and surprise Very Important People. my angst wasn't Very Important, in retrospect, but it seemed to be at the time. did it ever. it's been harder for me to process stress over the past couple of weeks. used to be that if i got stressed out in a bad way, i would work it

2004-04-13T08:11:00.000-07:00

i'm in the process of putting together an application for a job i really really really want. i'm going to be good at it, and i'm very qualified, but my chances of getting it are slim. i'm thinking that the application process for this thing should be a joy. why is it so stressful? oh, yeah, i know, it's cause i'm a perfectionist about applications and i really really really want this j-o-b,

2004-04-05T09:34:00.000-07:00

prithee, my dear, why are we here nobody knows we go to sleep as breathing flows my mind secedes -pixies i have been so tired lately. i was sad and grumpy last week till i asked myself why i was so sad and grumpy and i figured out it was just leftover, a leftover habit from when i was working that last hideous job. i'm feeling so much more together these days. i did a little (very little, too

2004-03-27T07:59:00.000-08:00

because i'll be soaring up and down the freeway this quarter so much trying to get from job to job, this is what i need for the adjunct-o-mobile: a cd player a mobile internet connection a laptop an adapter for the laptop that plugs into the adjunct-o-mobile's cigarette lighter hole a cigarette lighter cigarettes alot of air freshener some more music would be nice too. yesterday i took one of

2004-03-25T19:28:00.000-08:00

no more customer service job from hell. i quit it cause i got so many teaching offers this quarter. if it were a nice normally unpleasant and exploitive customer service job, i would have held on to it instead of picking that extra class. but this job was the pittiest of the pits. worse than mc d's even. i'm applying for a recent opening, a job i really want. i don't have very high hopes of

2004-03-16T20:13:00.000-08:00

HungerComfortHygieneEnergyFunSocialBladderRoomSchool of RockReach for the lasers with Antic's Sims-ulator! also, although i have some major qualms over the foreign films that netflix has decided to carry and not carry, they're turning out to be very useful. they have all the seasons of xena! exclamation point!

2004-03-07T08:24:00.000-08:00

where is jaime escalante when you need him? he isn't any where around these parts, especially not at my kid's school. why don't more school teachers follow the wisdom that students will rise to the level of expectations that teachers have for them? This teacher expectation piece is the part of escalante's pedagogy that gets overlooked most. it's easy for alot of teachers, even if they're

2004-02-29T09:08:00.000-08:00

i wonder if members of the second millenium power elite have nightmares like the main characters have in the discreet charm of the bourgeoisie. i wonder if they're haunted by spectres of public school kids who can't learn to their fullest potential, by people dying of aids because they can't get medicine, by the millions of people who die yearly for lack of food and clean water, by working class

2004-02-22T07:57:00.000-08:00

well, it was bound to happen sometime. i actually went out with friends last friday night and none of us had our kids with us. it's not that i don't like hanging around and doing stuff with the kids. au contraire. given most situations, i would choose hanging with kids and families over hanging with just people my age. but it's been a long, long time. it was great. we saw a film in french

2004-02-17T07:52:00.000-08:00

i should be polishing a lecture and an exam, but instead i'm sitting here wondering how kids can mess up a house so thoroughly while i'm off at the daily hose. i think they miss me. it may be a cry for help or some kind of wierdly manifesting resistance. then again, it's possible they're just slobs. yesterday was a tough day in class. some of my students have made some pretty ill informed

2004-02-10T16:04:00.000-08:00

i was driving home early sunday morning... wait, that's not right. let me start over. i have been getting alot of my big thinking done on the road. the car is currently my one reliable alone place. i don't even have my own office anymore like i did when i was a grad student. the other day as i was powering up the highway going from job to job, i remembered my old buddy m saying that he felt

2004-02-06T07:45:00.000-08:00

i'm going to write here tonight. thanks for worrying about me, people. i'm fine, pretty much. busy. stressed. sad. and thankful for what i've got. jeez i sound like a fricking church dependent simpy cheeseball. i'm writing tonight because i have to do something to get myself out of this funk. i cant afford a massage, i know that would help, but even if i could afford one i couldn't

2003-12-18T09:32:00.000-08:00

on the way home from dropping the kids off at school this morning, the crap radio station played billy idol's eyes without a face. it made the mundane ride home really fun, and it made me think about the movie by the same name. (in french, it's les yeux sans visage.) it has to be one of the grossest, scariest films ever created. it's so good though. they certainly don't make 'em like they

2003-12-15T09:43:00.000-08:00

found this on invisible adjunct's blog. maybe it's time to redecorate. then again, no. you are turquoise#40E0D0Your dominant hues are green and blue. You're smart and you know it, and want to use your power to help people and relate to others. Even though you tend to battle with yourself, you solve other people's conflicts well.Your saturation level is higher than average - You know what you

2003-12-14T10:15:00.000-08:00

more discomboobulated randomnesss from mean regression, in no particular order: against my better judgement, i'll be hanging a little bit of holiday lighting around the porch today. we need the cheeriness. dam the electric bill. the phone bill came yesterday. final notice. i think i'll take some clothes down to the consignment shop today. i woke up this morning and headed straight to the

2003-12-13T06:25:00.000-08:00

eight dollars an hour is not enough. my youngest kid is falling apart. she doesn't do too well when i'm not around. i have to be away from her for eight dollars an hour. she's not doing well. i can't say anymore. but it's bad. it's only a temporary and seasonal job. i have to work it. there's no one i can leave her with. it isn't even full time. i have to buy heating oil. the job

2003-12-08T07:12:00.000-08:00

the neighborhood squirrrels and racoons are cute this tme of year. my new part time job is brain numbing and hard on my body and i don't get paid nearly close to half enough. i love creating exams. my kids can be extremely bratty. but they're worth it. we still haven't made the holiday candles. my kids' dad has taken assholery to new levels never seen before by humankind. he truly is

2003-12-03T20:06:00.000-08:00

the M F project illustrates how socially relevant google is becoming. someday, google will rule the world. i wonder if i could get a job with them...

2003-11-28T08:16:00.000-08:00

my car is broken. i need it to get to my job. the mechanic said it was gonna cost almost $600 dollars. i talked him down to under $450. i will have to go into debt even further so i can fix my car so i can drive to my job that requires a big credential but pays less than minimum wage and then go to my new part time job that pays just over minimum wage. happy fricking buy nothing day. i

2003-11-27T11:11:00.000-08:00

yes yes yes, step right up to cover-up the genocide day. it's like this culture has an invisible carnival barker egging people on to buy the mythology that those nicey-nice happy go lucky pilgrims and those that were already here got along famously, just like two happy neighbors on the block. "knock knock, could i please borrow a cup of corn? and would you mind also if i were to borrow a

2003-11-26T12:43:00.000-08:00

my kid is watching mystery train. not because it's particularly good, but because it's "artsy." here in america, and i use that name with tongue in cheek, it's thanksgiving tomorrow. this kid who's watching jarmusch wants to fast tomorrow in commemeration of what the day deconstructed really stands for. thanksgiving means various things for various people. i suppose what i'm thankful for is

2003-11-24T12:39:00.000-08:00

yesterday was the day that billy bob thornton saved my butt. yes he did. we all finally had free time at the same time yesterday to go and see the matrix but due to a series of unfortunate events it didn't happen and we ended up going into the theater to see love, actually. you know how sometimes, you just want to eat a candy bar, like the sweetest one you can find, so sweet that the sugar

2003-11-21T07:08:00.000-08:00

emergency news flash. this just in: racism makes people stupid

2003-11-19T14:23:00.000-08:00

how did it know who's in my bedside bookcase? amazing. uncanny. supernatural. You are Franz Fanon! The father of postcolonialism,you were a prominant French academic until youresigned your post and joined the Algerianresistance. Your works are surprisinglyreadable for a major theorist, although youonly have two of them. You died in 1961 ofLukemia. What 20th Century Theorist are you? brought

2003-11-17T21:14:00.000-08:00

oh spite. oh hell. i think it's time to go hat shopping. i would go out and buy some hats if i had some money, but i don't, so i won't. when i was a little girl, my mom got her dear friend, who was hairdresser to all the glamourous women in town, to come to the house and cut my hair. he was really good with the women, but with little girls' hair, he had no clue. i don't know why my mom

2003-11-15T10:24:00.000-08:00

i'm passionate about the benefits of education in general. it's liberatory for people in so many ways, and a bunch of open and freed minds is one critical ingredient to creating positive social change in this f'ed up society, world, country. i was passionate about getting my own education, to the tune of a deep financial debt and pretty much no social security to pay for a crappy nursing home

2003-11-12T06:44:00.000-08:00

enter the meatrix (got this link from ivan_durak by way of lli)

2003-11-11T07:00:00.000-08:00

the good old music store must be phasing out their used cassette section because last night consolidated, the pretenders, and queen latifah were only 2 bucks. we listened to consolidated on the way home, the myth of rock, which spurred a discussion of the sexual politics of meat and the book by the same name. it was nice. i think the middle kid is entering piaget's formal operational stage.

2003-11-09T08:06:00.000-08:00

i haven't written in this blog for over a week. in asking myself why, i've come up with a couple of reasons. first, i've been busy. the house remodel has taken up alot of my free time. it takes more time and planning to run accross the street to use the facilities than it does to just toddle over to your very own facilities. and i've been busier looking for more work. one bummer: i didn't