caitri: (hug your shark)
Texas Fires Visible From SPACE.

DO NOT WANT.

In other unpleasant news, my car is in the shop for the weekend for some battery issues. I'm glad it was caught early and maintenance and parts NOW are cheaper than they would be in another year or so when they'd have to apparently completely replace a whole bunch of stuff, but still. SIGH.

In cheerier news, my story for this week's writing class is going easier and hopefully I can post it f-locked later this weekend. I at least like the concept behind it: we had to start with a "dreamlike" writing exercise and, me being me, I added stuff. *looks shifty*

I will say, as odd as it is, I feel more confident writing fic than real stuff. I mean, with my characters, I *know* how they are supposed to sound instead of trying to imitate the voices and rhythms of actors and other writers, but still. There's the whole process of learning how imaginary people tick that I haven't done in a while, and it's unsettling. Hopefully I'll kick it into gear, though.

And just because:

Yuck

Feb. 1st, 2011 05:27 am
caitri: (bullshit)
Woke up an hour ago to find house shaking around me. Grabbed ipad and cats (not in that order) and ran to bathroom (most interior room of my house, least windows and glass) to hide. Severe thunderstorm I'm counting down through--it's quieted down a lot. This is frikkin February though, AND we're supposed to have hard freeze tonight. WTF global climate change, wtf??
caitri: (Default)
Or because, y'know, it hurts too much to cry.


caitri: (Default)

Creationists in Texas.



The sad part is how we dodged the bullet on giving the person who believed that public education was unconstitutional and that public schools should be abolished the job.
caitri: (Default)
At The American Statesman:

Armey, echoing some of the fiery rhetoric he employed as a Republican congressman from Dallas, opened with the premise that higher education costs have steadily climbed in America as quality has gone down.

He charged that universities serve “the comfort and security of the faculty” rather than the educational needs of students. And he urged regents to require university presidents and other administrators to scale back the authority of faculty members in university governance.

Here are a few zingers from Armey, himself a former professor and chairman of economics at the University of North Texas:

“Ninety-nine percent of all bad ideas are born in universities.”


From people like Armey, clearly.

Ph.D. stands for “privileged higher than deserved.”

Meh--depends.

“A lot of hogwash is generated and they call it research.”

Only in the Education department.

Tenure “gives everyone who has it” the ability “to be a bully to everyone who doesn’t have it. I believe tenure actually diminishes academic freedom.”

Only if you lack balls to begin with.

The faculty lounge is “one of the most brain-dead locations in the United States.”

That would be because there is no such place as a "faculty lounge" on an actual university campus. Seriously.

Mostly this is depressing but unsurprising. The true problem with the university system is that the public education system is ill-equipped to prepare students for entry to university, and once they get here they have to relearn everything from the ground up: No five paragraph writing assignments. Think critically, don't regurgitate. Yes, evolution is a real theory--just like fucking gravity.

Etc.
caitri: (Default)
Revolution Cafe & Bar is starting monthly Cafe Scientifique meetings. We went to the first one last night, which was pretty entertaining if not well organized. Basically, the idea is that someone will give an informal talk of around twenty minutes on something going on in science and technology--in this case an anthropology professor gave a talk on "the evolution of cooperation" among this group of island clans somewhere who were also whalers (I was distracted by a really cute dog border collie who kept wandering around the room so probably didn't pay as close attention as I should've). Then there was about an hour of informal Q&A and discussion from allcomers, but unfortunately the last twenty minutes degenerated into anti-war anti-Cheney snarks which the moderator should have put a stop to. I'm all for snarking, but during a science talk I'd really like to hear more about what "kin selection" is and the role of game theory in corporate determinations and other stuff I don't quite get. Though I understand that basically all the town's liberals were in one room and we were all frustrated with fuckin' Texas, but still, Science, people!!

At any rate I really like the idea and setup, particularly if the organizers can get their act together. I was annoyed that after the intro, one advertised that they had calendars with their schedules of speakers, and when I went to get a couple since I was sitting with like five people, she got all twitchy and said she wanted them back when we were done with them. ?? I *think* the next talk is Nov. 20, but what a way to advertise!

The whole thing reminds me of the philosophical salons that were popular from the 1600s-1800s. I once read an interesting book on salon culture and think it's a really cool way for the Vox Populi to gather steam.

Profile

caitri: (Default)
caitri

July 2025

S M T W T F S
  1234 5
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 23rd, 2025 11:28 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios