Parts-n-Pieces

Don't cover up injustice...Speak.

Found via Feministing:   A Dubai organization combating intimate partner violence created these make up kits with a message.  Specifically, each color in the palette represents a different kind of abuse.  For example, one can use a specific color "If punched in the face...,"If hit with utensil," "If kicked in the stomach," "If smacked in the eye..."

The brush in the kit says: "Don't cover up injustice. Speak." It also includes the  City of Hope's hotline number. The kits were given out at shopping malls in Dubai. 

These should be constructed elsewhere.  I wonder what kind of makeup could cover emotional, spiritual, and verbal abuses.

Posts that I will possibly, someday, eventually write

I sit at the computer, and I intend to write something profound.  I sit, and look at the screen.  I sit, and play with the dog.  I sit, and shop on eBay.  I sit, and wonder why I'm not writing.  It's not as if I don't have subjects.  I do.  Lots of them, in fact.   So why am I not writing?  I . . . I, well,. . . I just don't know.

The end of the dissertation?  The weirdness and stress that surrounds an academic job search?   Maybe those are the real reasons, but I need to suck it up and just get over my bad self.  And write.

If I was writing as much as I once did in this space, I'd be writing about the following (and these might just pop up as blog posts in the near future):

• The applicability of the "alternative pedagogies and programs" used with underprepared student-athletes with other marginalized student groups ...

• The Writing Through Photography class I'm teaching this term ... and how teaching the skills of "good" photography can improve student writing.

• The radical change in perceptions students have toward me now that I call myself "Dr." ... maybe it's just me, but there is a dramatic difference in what these students will go along with without complaining now that I have a completed degree.  It's weird.

• The act of making such significant changes in my life at this stage of my life is unusual ... but necessary.  And noteworthy.

OK, that's the one I need to write about, how unusual but noteworthy these changes are for someone like me.  I'll write about it later today, but that's where I'll start.

But in the meantime, a practice photo from my new camera, the Nikon D-90 (taken at lunch yesterday):

The biggest version is the coolest.

RBOC (post-diss pre-job edition)

One would think that after the horrors of the dissertation (defense), the exhausting end of the semester, the stress of the job-search-disguised-as-dating-ritual I'm now suffering through, and the trauma-inducing assault in San Francisco, life would be just peachy.  It isn't.  I'm depressed.  Therefore, random bullets.  (Eventually I'll get back to writing something of substance.  Today isn't the day.)

• I'm depressed.  Yes, this is to be expected.  I have been through a lot in the past six weeks or so (as noted above).  It sucks nonetheless.

• I need to get my act together as classes start in four days.  Am I ready?  Not a chance.  Two syllabi done and two more to finish.  So much more to do.  I hope tomorrow I'll be done with syllabi.

• I think this entire job search process is awful.  Don't get me wrong; I had my share of interviews (MLA and phone), and I think those went OK.  I don't think I bombed anything.  But still.  Now it's waiting.  Waiting for the phone to ring.  I haven't had to wait for the phone to ring since high school.  And the waiting brings up such insecurities.  "Why did [that school] contact her and not me?"  "What has [this other candidate] have that I don't have?"  I despise that kind of comparison making, but that's what this job search process encourages.  OK, maybe not "encourages," but still.  I have turned into a 17-year old neurotic girl who doesn't have a date for prom.

• I always had dates to the prom.  In fact, I went to four proms and had dates for each one of them.  (Those were the days.)

• I have to give teaching demonstrations on two campus visits (so far! and my phone line is available now!!), and I'm not sure how I'm suppose to do this.  My entire teaching pedagogy/philosophy rests on the fact that I get to know students:  relational pedagogy.   I won't know these guys and gals.  And I suck at pretending.  Something to work on . . . .

• I am buying a new camera, as I have worn out the Nikon D-50.  I'm upgrading to a D-300.  This purchase isn't as "random" as much as it's "fan-freaking-tastic."  I'm upgrading from 6.0 megapixels to 12.3 and the ISO range is much larger than with the D50.  The D300 also has a sensor-cleaning mechanism that the D-50 does not have (and my current sensor is filthy).   I'll stick with the same lens setup I now have (18-55mm and 70-300mm).  My next major photography purchase will be an f/2.8 lens.  Maybe not this one, as I might need to spend the $23,899.95 (free shipping!) on a car someday.

• I wonder if it'd be tacky to take my new camera on job visits.  I wouldn't pull out the camera during a talk with the Provost and and ask the admin assistant to take our photo ("cheese!") or anything, but I might take photos of locations.  Bad form?

But whatever.  Tomorrow I'll get up and start on this work.  I'll go outside and walk.  I might go to a museum.  My friend wants to practice his job talk on me, and if I can stomach revisiting the world of Division I-A sports, there is a basketball game tomorrow night.  I might like that.

Highlights of 2008 (the year of intentionality)

I no longer make new year's resolutions.  I used to.  I would always resolve to save money, lose weight, exercise more, be a kinder person.  Hopefully I was a kinder person, but the rest of those "resolutions"?  Never happened.  So instead, I've begun-- like many others, I believe-- to have a theme for the upcoming year.  Last year, my theme was "intentionality."  My plan was to go into each encounter with a sense of intention, with a sense of purpose.   It worked.  While last year was a challenge in many respects, it was (overall) a good year.  In looking through my archives, here are the highlights of my 2008:

January:

• Sprained my knee and spent 10 days or so unable to walk
• With the sprained knee, had maintenance man weirdness
• Posted Springsteen's "Prove it all Night" You Tube video the first of about four times (it would prove to be my anthem for the year)

February:

• Started the first of several "music to dissertate by" lists
• Learned how to not be a "practice player" (thanks, Chris!)
• I saw Tom Jones at a Casino in Oklahoma (surreal, that was)

March:

• I won Derek's March Madness basketball tournament on Yahoo
• I went to a lecture by Forest Whitaker and got some awesome photos