Crunch Time

Now that the lovely Thanksgiving break is over, it's time for the deadly final two weeks of school.

Tomorrow I will be turing in my first major research paper. This is for my theory class, which turned out to be pretty awesome. I am researching framing and looking at the way participants in a certain scandal framed the problems and solutions involved with the scandal. Tomorrow I will also be making a 10-minute presentation on this paper in my theory class, which should be heartily entertaining. The paper will be around 15 pages without my coding sheet.

Next Monday, I have my law paper due. In my law class, I am researching the effects of a certain case on the way colleges deal with censorship. The case, Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, decided that a principal can censor high school publications even at a public school, if the material does not fit into the educational pedagogy of the school. I think writing this paper will be fun. I was drawn to the case because when I was teaching, the ways we were censored, both in the student newspaper and the types of books we were allowed to teach, irritated me greatly. For example, I wanted to teach my favorite book ever, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (which I just reread last week. If you haven't read it, it's awesome!), but was not allowed because of the instances of rough language. (Even though other books we were allowed to teach had the same language.)

Next Tuesday, I will be presenting my study in my research methods class. I proposed a study comparing blogs on newspaper web sites by the newspaper's circulation.

Next Wednesday, I have to hand back 167 mini research papers that my J110 class turned into me right before Thanksgiving. I have, presently, 60 finished. So sometime in the next week, I have to grade 110 papers!

So, I'll be churching out some thousands of words between now and next Tuesday. Wish me luck! I'll try to post an update about my presentation tomorrow night.

Human Tetris

A cornicopia of projects to complete

I love being home for Thanksgiving.

Hal and Layla and I rolled into my parents' driveway at about 6:30 yesterday, toting clothes, Layla's crate, and my mass of homework I need to accomplish over this long, supposedly relaxing, weekend.

On the agenda for me is 167 3-4 page "research" papers on celebrity journalism. I'm going to try to do 20-30 a day, which will allow me to have a good chunk done when I go back to school and all craziness erupts.

Also on the agenda is my theory paper, which is due on Wednesday, exactly one week from now. Oh dear, that's very soon. I'm going to try not to think about it until Friday so I can enjoy eating lots of food tomorrow. I also have a presentation on my theory paper on Wednesday of next week. Following that, I have my law paper due on Monday, Dec. 3. Then I have my methods paper due Tuesday, Dec 10. But I have a presentation on that paper on Dec. 4. It's going to be so much fun for the last couple weeks of school!

Anyway, I also made a pilgrimage to the haircutters. I love getting my hair cut, but I haven't wanted to find a new place in Bloomington. So I usually try to go when I'm home. I haven't had my hair cut since August, and I've been growing it out for some time. Today I did something I've wanted to do for years.

I donated my hair.

Hal has never seen me with short hair. My hair is officially short, and not all of it fits into a ponytail. I'm still getting used to it, and I'm sure washing it will be interesting tonight. I haven't had short hair since I was a freshman in college, which was 7 years ago. I will post some pics of the new do soon.

I hope you all have fantastic Thanksgivings!

He's a maverick

Today on the bus a guy got on with his headphones. (We have a lot of headphone users on the bus, probably to drown out BIGBLOODYTUMOR talk.)

Anyway, so this guy is BLASTING his music. And I'm sitting there, and I'm listening because, well, I'm a total eavesdropper. A smile spreads over my face.

He's listening to the theme song from Top Gun. Not "Highway to the Danger Zone" -- I totally understand listening to that -- but the actual, instrumental music from Top Gun. Which is, undoubtably, awesome.

On a side note, if I'm remembering correctly, Top Gun is the first movie we watched when we installed surround sound for the first time in our old house. The beginning of the movie, where "Highway to the Danger Zone" does play, literally shook the walls of our house. It's awesome to be able to feel your movies as well as hear them!

Hilarious!

From http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/preps/2007/11/believe-it-or-not.asp#comments, which is the Cincinnati Enquirer's High School Sports blog:

Believe it or not ...

LEXINGTON -- Upon arriving at the state cross country meet today I heard the craziest (in fact the only crazy) cross country story I've ever heard. Apparently in last week's regional meet, Elizabethtown runner Emily Buck was run into by a deer. According to the Lexington Herald-Leader's Mike Fields, "she suffered some bruises but no serious injuries."

Buck ran in today's state meet without incident. I'm told the deer was a female, which I'm guessing led to at least one "Doe stops Buck" headline somewhere in the state.

posted by Ryan Ernst at 1:49 PM

Awesome: A Halloween story

On Halloween I was sitting in the undergraduate class I am an assistant for.

Suddenly, a noise straight out of Star Wars broke the relative quiet of the room (Professor was getting a video clip together to show everyone). It was the Chewbacca noise -- you know it. If you don't, it's required that you watch Star Wars and figure it out.

Our classroom, being an auditorium with 166 seats, has a front entrance and a back entrance. In from the back entrance comes a girl (I'm assuming, b/c this person had a long blond ponytail) wearing a Chewbacca costume and a mask! Following her was a stormtrooper. Then, in from the front door comes another stormtrooper! The two stormtroopers catch Chewy in the middle of the aisle and carry her out of the classroom.

We all turned to Professor. He looked at me and then the rest of the class.

"I don't know what that was," he said. "I didn't plan that."

Giggling begins.

How awesome is that?!

(There was an episode of Gilmore Girls when Rory's boyfriend Logan and his friends interrupt one of her Yale classes to put on a skit and embarrass Rory. I've always thought it would be awesome if that happened in one of my classes. And now it has!!)