These are two interesting videos about education and media made by Kansas State University Professor Michael Wesch. I suppose I could get deeper, but I’m tired. Enjoy.
Archive for the 'Miscellaneous' Category
Well, we are in Arizona. I begin my doctoral studies at ASU next week which means I will be really busy. I am very excited about being in a big research university and so far the folks at the department have been great. Sorry I have been an absent blogger and I am afraid my studies will mean I will not be a frequent poster. Never fear, when I have some interesting bit of trivia or some silly opinion on something I will try to squezze in a quick post.
Interesting blog from Juan Cole’s Informed Comment.
Fox Cable News spent more time than other cable news networks covering Anna Nicole Smith and spent much less time covering Iraq than the other networks. Gee, back in 2003 they seemed to have a lot about Iraq. I guess Faux News is only interested in stories that further the agendas of Rupert Murdoch and his Republican Party:
‘ “Fox spent half as much time covering the Iraq war than MSNBC during the first three months of the year, and considerably less than CNN. The difference was more stark during daytime news hours than in prime-time opinion shows. The Iraq war occupied 20 percent of CNN’s daytime news hole and 18 percent of MSNBC’s. On Fox, the war was talked about only 6 percent of the time. Another story that has reflected poorly on the Bush administration, the controversy over U.S. attorney firings, also received more attention on MSNBC (8 percent of the newshole) and CNN (4 percent) than on Fox (2 percent), the Project for Excellence in Journalism found. ‘
At last, an explanation for the 33% who think Bush is doing a good job in Iraq! They are not getting any news about what is going on there from Republican Party t.v.!
And here’s Dan Marsh’s take on Paris Hilton and Darfur.
5- September 20 1967, the birth of Matt and Gunnar Nelson.
4- Ronald Reagan uses Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A., a song about the treatment of Vietnam vets, as his re-election campaign song.
3- Tiffany’s mall tour.
2- Fabrice Morvan and Rob Pilatus release Rob and Fab, an album in which they actually sing.
1- The Final show of The Behemoth Experience.
All kidding aside, Behemoth rocks. Very few bands are this clever, smart and entertaining. Go see them while you can!
On May 31st I received my Master’s Degree in Religious Studies from California State University, Long Beach. The past few years in Long Beach have been a wonderful experience for me. Dee and I have met great people and have had a great time. I want to take a minute and thank all of the friends and family who have helped me the past few years. I could not have done it without this amazing support system.
In August I will begin my Ph.D.studies at Arizona State University. We look forward to the new city and new adventure.
This is just a quick word of thanks for all of those who came out to see me speak at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in San Pedro last Sunday. I gave a talk about Islam and the Sunni/Shia split. It was a very nice turnout and everyone had thoughtful comments and questions. I am always pleasantly surprised whenever I give a talk like this at a church. There is rarely a negative reaction to the subject manner and, I hope there is a deeper understanding of the religion, the people and the commonalties that we share. Thanks and I hope to continue the dialogue.
I like comic books. There I said it. I am out of the comic closet. My friends and family know this about me and don’t judge me too harshly. Their nice people. However as I have gotten older I have become a little embarrassed by my like of comics.
I began collecting comics when I was 12 years old. I would ride my bike to a liquor store that had a little rack. It was there I bought my first comic. It was the cover that did it. Here was this beautiful black woman with a stark white mohawk fighting a giant snake with a buck knife. How cool is that?! X-Men #223.
My mom was cool about it and would drive me to the comic book store a couple times a month. We eventually moved from San Diego to Orange County and she continued to take me to the comic book shop and would patiently sit in the car while I searched old comics bins for back issues of X-Men, Green Arrow and Suicide Squad. The things parents do for their children.
As I got older, however, I became disillusioned with comics (now there’s a weird thing to say). The quality declined or my tastes refined or both. Anyway I quit. I was 19, living on my own and decided to put away childish things. Sayonara Professor X.
Then things started to change. I was in a comic book store in Killeen, Texas of all places, when I discovered Warren Ellis. He was doing something really interesting. He was writing superhero stories with political overtones. Hell, if you are bulletproof and can bench-press a tank what is stopping you from overthrowing a corrupt government? Ellis led me to other great works of comic genius such as Art Spiegelman’s Holocaust epic Maus. It is a beautiful and haunting story. I discovered Joe Sacco who created a new form of journalism with his works Safe Area Gorazde and Palestine and Marjane Satrapi’s Iranian revolution memoir Persepolis. And more popular works such as Alan Moore’s gothic From Hell and the noir Torso by Brian Michael Bendis.
The point of all this is that comics are much more than guys shooting laser’s out of their eyes or turning green when they get angry. Comics tell stories just like any other medium. Comics as a field are dominated by sci fi and fantasy but not limited to that. Just like film or televison, a comic can tell any type of story that man can imagine.
I don’t read comics as much anymore. Once in a while I’ll pick one up but I tend to limit them to the more serious stuff. Still, I see that woman fighting that snake and I think of those childhood afternoons in the comic shop, the car rides with my mom and I’ve just gotta open it up to see who wins.
What is this site that you have been lucky enough to stumble upon? To tell you the truth…I have no idea. I have never blogged before. I figure I never had anything that interesting to say, but I’m going to say it anyway. So I imagine that this site will be my mental vomit (glad you stopped by yet?). I will expres my thoughts on all manner of subjects from the serious (politics, religion, the general state of the world) to the entertaining (film, music, politics, religion and the general state of the world) to the utterly mundane (what I did this weekend, what weirdness I found on the internet, politics, religion and the general state of the world). There are countless sites like this out there in the blogosphere and this is just one more. It is an experiment. Sometimes it will be successful and other times less so. Hopefully, we can all get something from it. A little information, a little stimulation, a little entertainment, at least a minute of distraction from your workday.
One word of thanks. Bryan Brown has been kind enough to set this site up for me. In reality, I think that after 16 years of friendship he is tired of listening to every harebrained and asinine thought that enters my head and was looking for an outlet so I would leave him alone. Regardless of his motivations, I thank him greatly. He designed it and runs all the technical mumbo jumbo (I am a luddite).
Asinus asinum fricat!