I'm writing an article on the finer things in life, and i was wondering if i could cite you...

I am officially an early Americanist now.

Wednesday Addams hijacks a Thanksgiving pageant.

Brief expression of pain.

Interest Rank

1. Historian

2. Anthropologist

3. Criminologist

4. Professor

5. Technical Writer

6. Special Effects Technician

7. Religious Worker

8. Community Worker ( more )

Rice and Bean (yes, hilarious), own a home together and have a line of credit together.

Last Tuesday morning, after a terrible evening ordeal involving a flat tire, Wal-Mart, and towing, Greg drove me to Pittsburgh to catch my flight to the Midwest. I spent most of last week in Omaha. Highlights included the Henry Doorly Zoo, intense wind, and an Elvis tribute fireworks display. I also ate at Cracker Barrel with the folks from the retirement community where my mom now works.

I’ve been in Lawrence since Saturday night. As soon as I got in, Lauren and I headed to MC’s for drinking, desserts, and singing. I’ll probably stick around until my plane leaves on Wednesday.

I've decided to take up hiking, since I live in a place with great hiking.
Yesterday I hiked the James "Jimmy" Cleveland Memorial Trail.

( click for pictures )

Heather! How are you?

I suppose I am uninterested in signing for two main reasons.

1) Context.

I don't want to minimize the pain and suffering of the victims and their families, and I agree that the event was sad and tragic. But...

I feel that to be able to operate under the assumption that the world is a fair and safe place-- untouched by random violence and injuring only those who deserve/provoke it-- is a privileged framework. Many well-off white Americans don't confront and don't have to confront the world's horrors, except in shocking and anomalous media-hyped events, like this, or like Columbine, or when poor little Natalie Holloway disappears. I am sad and horrified by VT, but I'm perhaps just as or more upset by other things going on in the world right now. I suppose I'm concerned that people who are so upset or touched by the VT incident aren't upset or willing to do anything about tragedies in the neighborhoods of St. Louis or the genocide in Darfur. And it's not that I don't want a fair and safe world, because I do. I just don't think that we can get there by selectively reacting to violence and injustice, especially while turning a blind eye to more salient and persistent problems.

I also wonder: what does it mean that "we" have reacted so strongly to an event that was truly random--unpredictable and unpreventable--while ignoring violence and injustice that we have caused, are causing, and that could still be prevented. The same number, twice as many, three or four times as many Iraqi citizens die each day, a direct result of our invasion and destabilization of Iraq. I feel that as American citizens, we are culpable for this ongoing violence. Yet, the same students talking about VT, organizing events to commemorate VT, observing moments of silence over VT don't seem to care about the fate of Iraqi citizens, when they bother to think about them at all. It really does, in the end, demonstrate whose lives "we" value.

2) Methods.

What does signing a poster or wearing VT colors do for anyone except the signers or the wearers, who can feel good about demonstrating how compassionate they are?

---

"Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts." MLK

"For as long as we have seen and felt objects among our existence, there is but one word that defines soft and fuzzy together. This is none other than the word furry. It has been around our culture since man first learned how to speak."
- from an ENGL 15 student's definition essay

I don't mean to be callous, but no, I won't sign your poster for Virginia Tech.

mk: they really don't care about the names of the types of writing
mk: they want to say something

I find exhortations to live an authentic life somewhat...inauthentic.

Can the movie 300 be a better example of a 21st century fascist aesthetic?



(see also Arno Breker)

Classes start today. I'm much more excited about the classes I taking this semester, but I wish the break were just a bit longer.

Kristin and I switched bedrooms this weekend. Moving everything was stressful, but this space will be much better for me. All I need is a floor lamp.

When I look out the window, I see snowflakes.

Ellison to be sworn in using Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson