ramble through the bronx

Friday, October 27, 2006

Online shopping

For when you get your degree and become a man

meg 3:05 PM [+]

I'm rich...
I'm rich....er than most of the people in the world. In fact, I'm the 350,496,782nd richest person in the world. Pretty impressive, no? Find out your rank.

meg 3:59 PM [+]

Cute little cartoon

Apparently, it's funnier if you know Flash, but I still think it's cute

meg 11:08 AM [+]

I pity the fool....

Check out the Mr. T playset.

meg 2:42 PM [+]

My life was not complete

Okay, it's still not complete, but now it's much cooler.

meg 2:01 PM [+]

Life-changing product

I've always been concerned with the increase in my crotch heat index from wearing cords. Well, if you have the same worries, check this out. Especially the post from Oct. 11, in the blog section.

meg 1:16 PM [+]

And in case you don't have your own karaoke machine... I'm sorry if it gets stuck in your head. What language is that??

meg 11:01 AM [+]

Why bother with the flight to London?

When you can visit the British Museum from the comfort of your own couch? Well, not the whole museum, just the Mughal India room.

meg 10:56 AM [+]

Both of him

I love my Mats. Hat trick, over-time, game-winnning 500th career goal. Does it get any better?

meg 7:53 PM [+]

I want one!
I think the world would be a better place if we all had these in our workplaces.

meg 10:35 AM [+]

Teaching to the test

As posted in the wonderfully snarky academics_anon community on livejournal, witness this op-ed piece on higher education, written by Bush's former deputy secretary of education.

Thrill to memorable lines, such as the following:

Institutions of higher education need to report an academic bottom line.

What on earth is an "academic bottom line", especially in higher education? How on earth would this be measured? I'm reminded of those graphs that the Nortel people used to show us in high school, about job rates for folks with computer science vs. humanities degrees. They showed the first five years after graduation, in which, yes, the comp sci people had better luck finding jobs. They left out the research on how the groups are doing 10-20 years later, which shows humanities folk as doing pretty well, thankyouverymuch.

While they’re at it, colleges and universities must make it a priority that their students graduate. While most tuition payers assume a baccalaureate degree takes four years to complete, the truth is it takes typically more than six years. In 2003, only 34 percent of graduating students had completed their degree in four years or less.

Is the four years a priority? Given the reduced amount of federal funding for student loans & grants in the US, doesn't it make sense that more folk might be going part-time, so they can work on the side? Or coming back to school with a family, which will also cause the baccalaureate to take longer? Why should 4 years be a priority?

The academy responds to the demands of disciplines and faculty. It is a culture that cherishes independence and freedom. And it is a culture seriously out of touch with much of America.

I'm not sure this one even needs a comment. ;)

Faculty members decide what they want to teach and when they want to teach, if, indeed, they teach at all.

Yes, since deans and chairs have no say over this at all. Riiiiight.

Faculty members typically spend fewer than 200 hours a year in the classroom. That amounts to just five 40-hour weeks.

As I sit in my office hours, preparing my lesson, and having students come in to ask me questions on their upcoming papers (sometimes they even ask me questions over Gmail chat, while I'm relaxing), I look at this statement and kind of go, "what?" Yes, faculty are all lazy. Of course.

Take a look at what passes for subjects of scholarly and instructional focus on campuses. Should taxpayer dollars really go to underwrite courses in such things as the history of comic book art?

As someone currently in the midst of putting together a syllabus on philosophical themes in comic books, I think, "yes," actually. (As someone in the academics_anon forum pointed out, "Is he aware that only one hundred years ago, spending your precious academic years studying NOVELS was considered, if not the height of frivolity, at least a very lightweight major?"

And there needs to be a greater emphasis on teaching students what they need to know, rather than what faculty want to talk about.

Again, since deans and chairs never worry about this as it is.

The various college rating systems and publications are entertaining and interesting to read, but they don’t provide the sort of objective data tuition payers need to make informed decisions.

Since students (I refuse to say parents. But that's a separate issue. I hate the infantilization of students here at Fordham, which apparently is a problem all over the place. But I digress)... students = consumers. Obviously.

For generations, a college education has been a big part of the American dream. Much of the world has come to America to get a higher education. But nothing guarantees that this will be the case in the future. Indeed, for more and more American citizens, that dream is coming into question.

And the fault lies on faculty teaching about comic book art, not affordability or anything ilke that. Obviously. Of course. Yee-haw.

jane 3:14 PM [+]

Make yourself seem cooler!

Have you ever felt that your phone doesn't ring enough? Well, why go to the effort of reaching out and making new friends when services such at this exist on the internet?

meg 1:20 PM [+]

Partay time

Wow. There are no words. Watch the video.

meg 3:28 PM [+]

Happy Thanksgiving

You just can't forget about Canadian Thanksgiving. This year, I'm thankful for Nine West shoes and my new AirPort. Also, the new Google toolbar. Love that. I'm also thankful for all my friends. Y'all rock.
However! I'm not thankful for the new Rachael Ray show. She needs to go away. Also, Tyra Banks. I'm not even going to torture you with links to them.

meg 5:17 PM [+]

Comics

To add to your selection of internet comics...

meg 11:42 AM [+]

Now THAT'S the kind of headline I like to see from the CBC

Leafs rebound to crush Senators.

6-0.

Nice.

---

In other words, wish me luck as I apply for the the Newcombe Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. It's good for $19,000 over 12 months and is pretty prestigious; apparently they have a good track record of having their fellows find jobs.

I'm totally not going to get it (they give out 30, across all disciplines, across the whole U.S.) but given its description, how could I not apply?

The Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships are designed to encourage original and significant study of ethical or religious values in all fields of the humanities and social sciences, and particularly to help Ph.D. candidates in these fields complete their dissertation work in a timely manner. In addition to topics in religious studies or in ethics (philosophical or religious), dissertations appropriate to the Newcombe Fellowship competition might explore the ethical implications of foreign policy, the values influencing political decisions, the moral codes of other cultures, and religious or ethical issues reflected in history or literature.

jane 10:21 AM [+]

Why I love Jennifer Cruisie

If you know me well (or at all, really) you will know my love of chick-lit. And my favorite writer out there is Jennifer Cruisie. Well, she just released a new book, and, if I may, I'd like to treat you to a paragraph:

"Captain J.T. Wilder stood as still as possible in deference to his screaming
hangover, looked around at what he'd figured was going to be a good deal and
though, clusterfuck"

-"Don't Look Down" by Jennifer Cruisie and Bob Mayer, now on bookshelves.

And this is why I love her.

meg 11:07 AM [+]

Jane, do you live near any of this?

meg 2:23 PM [+]

My dream come true
Sign me up!!!

In other news, Eva Longoria and Tony Parker have split up. Which makes me laugh, because she was pretty love-struck all through the relationship.

meg 10:09 AM [+]

Back from DC

(1) I got accepted to the small NJ conference, so that will officially make it 4 conferences 4 weekends in a row. Yee haw! They are:

Oct 12-14: Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP) in Philadelphia (my paper: on rights, a la Fichte and Hegel)
Oct 20-22: Ancient & Mediaeval Phil Conference in NY (the same one I used to help organize) (my paper: on Aristotle and Fichte on the state's role in educating its citizens toward virtue)
Oct 26-29: American Catholic Philosophical Association (ACPA) in Ohio (60 miles outside of Columbus OH) (my paper: Fichte and Husserl on how we get to truth through communication with others)
Nov. 4: New Jersey Regional Philosophical Association (paper on
feminist conceptions of relational autonomy.)

(2) Had a fantastic time in DC. It was really relaxing to be away, and I really liked what I saw of the city. Yay quiet subway! Of course, once I got back to NYC, folks round here who've lived in DC did their best to burst my bubble & remind me about all the bad elements of DC (like how the nice quiet subway with its nice padded seats doesn't actually serve the poorer portions of the city, and rather is aimed at making life easier for commuters from the suburbs) but I blocked my ears and sang "lalala" until they stopped. I was on vacation, dammit. I get to think about economic deprivation every other single day.

(3) How are y'all liking Megan's posts? where did all the comments go? Was I so quiet for a while that everybody left?

jane 4:32 PM [+]

Garfield said it best

I'm not too fond of Mondays. Sundays always end with a bang of Simpsons and Family Guy, which does not lead logically into the total drudgery of Mondays. But I think I'm doing better than this....

I think this guy needs a hug. Perhaps it would help his bitterness and anger. This person used to be angry, but now is over it. I am not angry, I'm just bored. Experiencing a little of the ennui, if you will.

meg 2:34 PM [+]