gilesbot9000

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT OBSESSED WITH MY DOG.

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Eh? At a reading by Joan Didion this evening, a cranky old man got up at the Q&A and asked why she read something that was published and available for him to read himself. He wanted her to compose something just for the event (advertised as a public reading).

Also, I fear I will become one of these creepy old people who show up at all the public university lectures. Not necessarily the crazy types like this guy, but like the people I see all the time at both UNC and Duke -- one woman in particular who was at both talks I attended this evening at the two campuses.

>> 7:57 PM

Monday, February 27, 2006

I keep searching the news web sites for obituaries of Octavia Butler, but besides the Seattle Times one, nothing. I have come across [SeeLight's blog entry on Octavia Butler], though. I think fiction authors are the most wonderful people in the world.

>> 4:32 PM

I find it odd when humanities scholars talk about their "hypotheses."

>> 4:01 PM

I have to say I've become quite disillusioned with (academic) cultural criticism. I once thought I could totally live off reading the stuff. Now I want to retch after every article or book I read.

>> 2:14 PM

[Octavia Butler obituary.]

>> 7:46 AM

Friday, February 24, 2006

[But instead of androids you'd have prospectors, and fake librarians.]

>> 2:40 PM

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

It's Giles!

giles under desk

My doggy!

>> 6:57 PM

Monday, February 20, 2006

When's spring break? Ugh. So swamped in work still. And completely dreading checking e-mail with all the requests for individual attention from students, colleagues, and even random people on campus. I think I might put up an auto-reply saying that I can't respond anymore due to head explosion.

I think tonight I'm just going to clean up my work areas so that I have that sense of organization if not actual accomplishments.

>> 8:07 PM

Sunday, February 19, 2006

A reflecty moment at an airport.

>> 11:10 PM

I like it when Giles hangs out under my chair.

>> 6:19 PM

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Someone please help me clean up my desk! Actually, this is the overflow desk!

>> 6:19 PM

[Asian American studies lacking]:

“The classes offer students a chance to learn about themselves,” Hirose said.

Hirose said Asian American students often learn about other people’s history, but not their own. This is why majoring in Asian American studies can be empowering, she said.

Hmmm. So in this article about the University of Minnesota's Asian American studies minor and plans for establishing a major, all we get ultimately is this lame assertion that AAS is about Asian Americans learning about themselves. As much as this is an important component of ethnic studies, it's such a lame thing to bring out as a reason for instiutitionalizing the field. The work done in AAS should be studied by everyone in a wide range of humanities and social science disciplines, from literary studies to anthropology to sociology. (And even scientific disciplines should take note of AAS work.) This work isn't just about Asian American students learning their histories, but about how taking into account the presence of Asian Americans, thinking through Asian American perspectives, and so on radically transforms what people do in literary studies, histories, and so on. I mean, history has been radically changed by Asian American studies scholars who have shown how older models of European immigration-assimilation are inadequate to understanding what immigration is. Anyways, it's just disheartening to see an article published YESTERDAY has inane statements from scholars of the field. True, part of it is what the journalist brings out, but still..... Also, the "population count argument" about AAS essentializing limits the importance of AAS to schools where there are enough Asian American students to be visible. I think AAS should be taught everywhere, damnit! Even places where there are no Asian Americans or even any Americans (like in universities in other countries).

>> 3:52 PM

Saturday, February 11, 2006

It's early morning -- five o'clock -- when the alarm goes off. You don't mind the interruption so much, though, because it's a brief moment of half-awakedness, that wonderful feeling of lying next to your lover, the warmth of your bodies together. And you know you don't have to get up, even as he stumbles out of bed and groans. A bar of light peers into the bedroom. The sound of water running, toothbrush in action, toilet flushing -- these all wash over you as you lie under the covers. You roll over into the middle of the bed, sink into the lingering heat left by his body, and curl up next to the sleeping dog.

>> 5:07 AM

Friday, February 10, 2006

A couple entries cross-posted to LJ. I need to figure out what to do with this space....

(1) From a post on PlayOn, a blog on the social dimensions of virtual worlds:

[quotey]

After the previous analysis, we ran an additional one that included the character gender variable. Here, our results were puzzling. Across all of our metrics, male characters were better connected than female characters. And this was true for all classes, with the only exception of Priests. In other words, male characters of all classes are better connected than female characters of all classes, except for female Priests, who are better connected than male Priests. This gender difference was clear and consistent across our three measures of centrality.

[/quotey]

And there are BAR GRAPHS!

***

(2) T-Rex on emotions...

[quotey] This occurs simply because these people are placing their emotions over the warm embrace of cold, steely logic. [/quotey]

I wish the movie Equilibrium, set in a dystopic future in which emotions are squelched by drugs, were better. Because the warm embrace of cold, steely logic should totally win out over sucky emotions.

>> 7:14 AM

Thursday, February 02, 2006