• Project 366 PhotoBlog
  • Monday, February 25, 2008

    It's OK to vote for Obama because he's black

    cieux.autres@gmail.com has sent you a link to an article on Salon.com:

    "It's OK to vote for Obama because he's black"
    I'm voting for Obama because he's qualified, charismatic and progressive -- but his blackness seals the deal.
    By Gary Kamiya

    http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2008/02/26/obama/index.html

    - - - - - - - - - - - -
    Your friend's message:

    --

    Sent on Mon, 25 Feb 08 19:48:45 -0800 from IP: 68.110.71.108

    Tuesday, February 19, 2008

    10 Signs A Book Might Be Written By Me � ReadingWritingLiving

    I saw this at ReadingWritingLiving and as usual, can't resist a meme--especially as I slowly write a novel.

    In no particular order...

    1. It will seem highly derivative of Pynchon, Powers, and whomever I happen to be reading the day I wrote that chapter.

    2. There will be an architect in it.

    3. Tangents will take over any plot line before finally circling back round.

    4. The character names will either be grotesque or ridiculously banal.

    5. The narrator will insist on narrating about the landscape ad infinitum.

    6. There will be lists and lists and long lists.

    7. There will be long stretches of non-fiction that will make the reader wonder what happened to the characters.

    8. Someone will likely take a pot shot at religion.

    9. The boy will get the girl. Unless he doesn't.

    10. It won't be finished.

    Re: [learningexpedition] Re: Park Day -- Granada, 2/19/2008, 1:30 pm

    Okay,

    Here's my plan.  We need to get centrally located, all of us in one compound.  We stake out one of these apartment complexes going condo in the Scottsdale area.  Then, when these fat cat capitalist realize that the crappy housing market has made their business plan a complete mess, we move in with guns.  And we don't even need big guns.  They'll be so demoralized that squirt guns with black paint will get it done.

    After we secure the area and evict all the lawyers, restauranteurs, and periodontists, we lock down any entrances with abandoned Hummers.  We throw up those long skinny succulent things that people use as fences.  Ocotilla or something.  Plant them all around the complex, and then dig a moat behind them.  Just like Robinson Crusoe only deeper.  And put dead cactus in the moat.  And maybe a javelina or two.  How do you spell javalina?

    We slap up solar panels on the roof, cause you know they'll come after us by cutting the power.  Water will be okay because these places have pools (ref. Hotel Rawanda).  This will hold us over until the monsoon when we can replenish.

    No one's going to attack in the day.  Too risky to Scottdale's image. But at night we put the teenagers in corner units, like gun towers.  They never sleep anyway, so they'll have the night watch.    We'll make it a project. They can learn basic trig. through firing angles, physics by analyzing bullet rotation and drift.  History, we'll look at the great sieges of history--Masada, Fort Apache, Waco, Ruby Hill, Stalingrad, Die Hard.  During the day, the can write poetry and read the Charge of the Light Brigade.

    We outfit the cars a la Road Warrior.  We've probably got half a dozen mini vans that we can convert to tankers.  My Civic we'll soup up with nitro so we can create diversions.  Call it the Phasar or something cool like that.  Anyone named Max gets a free shot at driving it.

    Securing the center, we all have easy access to El Dorado, Chaparral, Train Park, Papago, Chesnutt, the dog park, the new park, spring training, the new water treatment plant, Motorola, the CAP, Kazmirez Wine Bar, and the library.  Any one of which we could occupy and hold indefinitely. 

    Who's with me?

    Cieux



    --

    Monday, February 18, 2008

    Valentine's Day

    My online classes had an assignment due on Valentine's Day, so I jokingly suggested that for extra credit they should tell me why the holiday should be abolished.  Instead I got this.

    http://www.newsday.com/video/?clipId=2194360&topVideoCatNo=94932&c=&autoStart=true&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&clipFormat=flv

    And yes, I choked up, but only just a little bit.

    Friday, February 15, 2008

    Study in Parallel


    Study in Parallel
    Originally uploaded by cieuxautres
    An alternate shot for Feb 8. Waiting for relatives at Sky Harbor.

    Feb 8 alternate


    Feb 8 alternate
    Originally uploaded by cieuxautres
    SkyGirl waiting for her aunt and cousin at Sky Harbor

    Thursday, February 14, 2008

    The future belongs to crowds


    The future belongs to crowds
    Originally uploaded by cieuxautres

    For one week, ground zero


    For one week, ground zero
    Originally uploaded by cieuxautres
    The ESPN broadcast tent in the heart of downtown. You'll never make them out, but I swear, that's Adam Sandler and Rob Schneider. Really.

    Estadio


    Estadio
    Originally uploaded by cieuxautres

    I photo, therefore I am


    I photo, therefore I am
    Originally uploaded by cieuxautres
    Grown men taking pictures and videotaping a B list rap star half their age.

    And me taking pictures of them. How meta.

    Everyone navel gazes during the Super Bowl hype.

    Who's Next on the Red Carpet?

    ESPN takes over the lawn in front of our library.

    Rain Over Camelback


    Rain Over Camelback
    Originally uploaded by cieuxautres
    February 4, 2008 alternate shot

    From the trail head, we could see the showers across the East Valley. We started hiking in what looked like the last sprinkles of a rare morning shower. As he got higher into the McDowell Mountains, the rain renewed it's strength. And then the wind picked up. And then, as we neared a halfway point on our short loop, it--I kid you not--it started to snow. Snow, in the Sonoran Desert.

    Monday, February 11, 2008

    Teaching in the New Era

    Right now, as I type this, I am listening to Tal Ben-Sharar lecture to his Harvard class.

    http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k14790&pageid=icb.page69129

    The course is from two years ago.  Mind you, I'm not listening via a CD or through the Learning Company or Great Lectures or any one of a number of intellectuals on tape.  Rather, I am watching video of his lecture, and I have downloaded his power point presentation.  All of this is free and easily available on the web, along with thousands of others at Harvard, MIT and probably any number of institutions.

    And I'm wondering just what is the role of the teacher at the university.  What, exactly is Ben-Sharar doing?  And does he need to be present in front of a live audience to do what he does?  These lectures have subsequently come out, obviously refashioned, as a book, Happier.  Can the teaching of this topic be reduced to the video, slides and book?

    In this case, perhaps yes, and where does that leave the teacher, the course and the university?  Why bother spending the money and attending the university? 

    I teach all my classes online, and the bulk of the work I do could easily be accomplished by the students themselves through paying close attention to the textbook written for them.  They really don't need me as a teacher.  They need a coach, a slave driver, and a bureaucrat who can sign off on their work.  But for this class, they do not need a teacher.

    Tuesday, February 05, 2008

    Yes We Can

    Sunday, February 03, 2008

    Super Bowl commercials

    That Etrade baby was funny. 

    "I'm gonna get a clown."