
Friday, September 30, 2005
Welcome to October.
Giles and I decided the facial hair thing wasn't working anymore. So we shaved.
>> 11:43 PM
I love the Women's Studies program staff. Earlier today, I was at a brunch for an ambassador, an older "women's issues" politico-type "lady." She's the type of feminist who sees women's empowerment and leadership as a straightforward project for achieving gender equality, never really questioning the institutional face of patriarchy or the way gender difference functions in uneven ways. When I arrived, I walked into a room of women, with the ambassador introducing herself individually to each person there. She never made it around to me, though, hiding in a corner. She told us about what it was like receiving an honorary degree from Duke the evening before, and then we broke as a group to get food from the serving table. Pat, the program coordinator for Women's Studies at Duke, came over to talk to me and noted that I must feel out of place as the only man in a room with an old-school pre-feminist women's issues activisit. What was funniest, though, was that she said it would be interesting to see if the guest came over to introduce herself to me and what she would say. A few minutes later, the guest came over to say hello. Pat mentioned that I teach in the program. And then the guest proceeded to ask me what my ethnic heritage was, completely ignoring any discussion of why I was in the women's studies program. Pat had thought, of course, that what would stand out about my presence is that I am male. Instead, it was because I am Asian.
On the shuttle ride back to the airport in San Francisco a couple weeks ago, Rob and I were subject to the annoying chatter of two suburban parents, the likes of which I grew up around and which my parents aspired to be. These are people who are so obsessed with the name-recognition of schools for their children, with the kinds of degrees they got and what kind of career their kids would pursue. Well, at one point, the woman in the conversation noted that her son didn't get into UC Berkeley, but that was probably for the best since the place is so "competitive" and he wasn't the best student. Then the conversation took this weird turn, a logical jump that I later mentioned to Rob and he said confused him as well. The two people started talking about how "those Asians" study so hard and are so dedicated. It was weird.
>> 1:54 PM
Thursday, September 29, 2005

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming....
>> 6:18 PM

Police get all the good spaces.

Wheelchair accessibility.

Alcohol bad.

Which way's up?

Obligatory Crepes on Cole visit/smoking photo.

Loitering and congregating. Dogs.

No nothing! At the duck pond.
>> 6:11 PM
Monday, September 26, 2005
Sometimes it's disheartening, but usually it's wonderful when Giles responds wildly inappropriately to my emotional states. The last few days I've been generally down, and this morning I was standing in the hallway just whining because I was feeling so pathetic. Giles looked at me, did the tilty head thing, and then spazzed out running around me like I was about to start a fun new game.
>> 8:11 AM
Friday, September 23, 2005

Posted on door of stall.
>> 1:19 PM
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
It is so hot and humid here; I want to cry.
>> 12:44 PM
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Garg. Trying to update my email accounts on my mail program (adding an account, changing another to imap from pop), I erased my main account and all the mail I had lingering in the inbox to respond to later. Oops. I hope nothing too urgent was in that mass of hundreds of emails. I guess this is one way of wiping the slate clean. Only 8 messages in the inbox now....
>> 11:03 AM
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Holy crap. Job listings posted today. Some really great looking job openings in my field. I think I will become a friend of Excel to keep track of positions and my application materials....
>> 10:07 AM
Wednesday, September 14, 2005

It was a beautiful wedding.
>> 10:58 PM
Monday, September 05, 2005
I woke up today in an awful, disconcerting mood. I think in my sleep, in my dreams, I work out or express emotionally things that I haven't acknowledged in my waking life. It's not that I dream about the situations that are disturbing me, but whatever the manifest content, I wake up thinking about particular things.... This time, I think it probably has to do with being worried about how my brother will react to Rob, especially the two of us staying at our parents' house with him.To shake the mood, I headed out for a walk with Giles and Sarah McLachlan's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. One thing is certain about a change in my listening habits -- I no longer listen to albums all the way through the way I used to. It could be due to technological changes (discrete object of cd to the digital files on an mp3 player) or a change in how I relate to popular music consumption in general (bordering on obsessive -- not being able to walk out of a record store without a purchase -- to not really listening to much anymore except occasionally while driving when not in the mood for classical music or NPR). But in the past, I would buy a record and listen to it non-stop for weeks until the songs became tied strongly to particular moments, spaces, and feelings in my life. Tori Amos's To Venus and Back, for example, is the New York subway system and streets for me. While I lived in New York, I made a tape copy of the cd and listened to it on repeat on my walkman as I traveled around the city each day. Sarah McLachlan's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy takes me to high school angst and the drawing I did to sublimate it. Today, by the time I reached "Ice Cream" on the album, I was feeling much better. I was also pleasantly surprised to hear the acoustic version of "Possession" at the end of the last track, following a moment of silence and a guitar sound marking a transition from the previous song. I'm sure Giles was happy, too, that we spent close to an hour wandering the premises.
>> 12:16 PM
Sunday, September 04, 2005
A Dog's LifeToday, Giles had a packed day. This morning, we went out for a long walk around the apartment complex with a brief interlude to run around off leash in the tennis court. Then we went to brunch at grandma's where he got to play with the cat Chester and get fed lots of treats. He also ran around the house looking for the other two cats in hiding. Then later in the afternoon, we went for an hour-and-a-half long walk with a friend on the American Tobacco Trail, followed by green tea drinks and the dog park. Giles played well with the dogs at the dog part, mostly. I had to pull him off one puppy a couple times when he got too rough. And then shortly before we left there was a really really really small dog (named Chewy!) that he was a little too overbearing with -- biting the dog, it looked like he was going to swallow the poor thing -- chewy, indeed! The owner removed the dog to an adjoining area where the dog ran back and forth along the fence playfully with the dogs on our side. All in all, a very active day.
>> 6:54 PM
Friday, September 02, 2005

Self-portrait with father in Providence.
Posting happy pictures because all-doom, all-gloom is not happy-making.

Self-portrait with Giles at home.

>> 9:08 AM
Chaos and gunfire hampered efforts to evacuate the Superdome, and, Superintendent P. Edward Compass III of the New Orleans Police Department said, armed thugs have taken control of the secondary makeshift shelter at the convention center. Superintendent Compass said that the thugs repelled eight squads of 11 officers each he had sent to secure the place and that rapes and assaults were occurring unimpeded in the neighboring streets as criminals "preyed upon" passers-by, including stranded tourists.
Now this is incredibly disturbing.[Military Due to Move in to New Orleans]:
"These are some of the 40,000 extra troops that I have demanded," Blanco said. "They have M-16s, and they're locked and loaded ... I have one message for these hoodlums: These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so if necessary, and I expect they will.
Eep.[Sniper fire halts hospital evacuation]:
"We were coming in from a parking deck at Tulane Medical Center, and a guy in a white shirt started firing at us," Curiel said. "The National Guard [troops], wearing flak jackets, tried to get a bead on this guy."
This is one of those times when you weep for humanity.
>> 7:39 AM
I really do need to figure out how to work (write dissertation) without externally imposed deadlines and such. This school year, I've decided to quit all my part-time jobs and to focus just on teaching and writing. This leaves me, technically, with oodles of unscheduled work time from Thursday afternoon through Monday, especially if I can confine my teaching work to Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning (as I would like).
I'm going to hide away in my apartment most of this coming weekend, in large part because going anywhere requires driving which is now verging on prohibitively expensive. I wish I still lived on the other side of town and could walk to various stores, restaurants, coffee places, and even Duke's campus. As it is, I can only walk around inside my apartment complex, which is bounded on one side by a heavy-traffic, high-speed thoroughfare and on the other sides by impassable (is that even a word?) woods. At least this might mean more quality strolling time with the dog who's been acting super-caffeinated lately. Plus, the weather is cool and dry! I even turned off the air conditioning yesterday for the first time in four months.
>> 6:40 AM
Thursday, September 01, 2005
So sad. Only one student recognized (or admitted to recognizing) the clip of Björk's "Human Behaviour" I played in class today.
>> 9:02 AM
>> 6:48 AM
home
current posts
buffy musings
atom site feed
livejournal +
dogster
graffiti
sugar baby
buy me
ducks
shadowy e-mail
aim: kcudlyp
photo projects
signs
signs 2
other places
glbt weblogs
asian american writers' workshop
alternet
genders
thefword.org.uk
the new york times
the independent
queerday
hyphen magazine
mother jones
sfgate
jon carroll @ sfgate
the onion
the village voice
the nation
salon
slate
poppolitics
feminista!
bartleby
BoyLOGS
comical web
















linky links
hermance
33mhz
bjland
shyaku
infavorofthinking
everythingbut
tinmanic
parryshen
tommyjournal
blueblanket +
homecookedtheory
decayunderway
isthatlegal
neonepiphany
poetryofthefuture
thekidthatcant
legalmoose +
gargy +
barkblog
worsethanqueer
nalohopkinson
bourgeoisnerd
centerofgravitas
veganlunchbox
blindchatelaine
dontaskme
chrismooney
epistemonical
avoidmuse
passandcross
gentscaninesociety
bitchphd
xoom
dogblog
flavorcountry
angryasianman
tympan
spark*
initialdean
gracenotes
littleyellowdifferent
bendingmachine
minjungkim
evilbuddha
bentkid
scootscoot
eruditebaboon
bookslut
procrastinatory
maggiemay
ianqui
seelight
newkidonthehallway
publicintelligence
michaelbérubé
towleroad
whatnow
larissalai
margaretcho
asianamericanpoetry
rebelprince
randumbness
let bygones be...
the old stuff
September 2000
October 2000
November 2000
December 2000
January 2001
February 2001
March 2001
April 2001
May 2001
June 2001
July 2001
August 2001
September 2001
October 2001
November 2001
December 2001
January 2002
February 2002
March 2002
April 2002
May 2002
June 2002
July 2002
August 2002
September 2002
October 2002
November 2002
December 2002
January 2003
February 2003
March 2003
April 2003
May 2003
June 2003
July 2003
August 2003
September 2003
October 2003
November 2003
December 2003
January 2004
February 2004
March 2004
April 2004
May 2004
June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006

