One week down …

… and 14 more to go till the semester ends. Yes I’m already thinking about it and I can’t wait. I seem to have a good group of students in both sections, but it’s only the first week.

I plan to write again today but I also have to complete several dissertation fellowship applications in the next week. One of the applications requires a 5-7 page abstract detailing my research, how it is located in a discipline or field of study, and what are its contributions. My eyes initially rolled up at the requirement. Another damn thing to write for something that I could be denied. But I quickly found it was a blessing in disguise. Part of writing this abstract is becoming a shortened version of my conclusion. And to have a real deadline is forcing me to put my thoughts together in an articulate and coherent manner. I had forgotten how having a real deadline is forcing me to write and finish a piece.

Here We Go Again

Today the spring semester for 2007 officially starts for me.  Two sections of GOVT 101: Democratic Theory and Practice.  Another set of students.  Some last minute emails from students about adding to my class.  Some minor changes to my syllabus.

And away I go.

Snowfall!

I was so overjoyed at the first flakes of snow for this year that I went outside with my camera to photograph the moment.  It’s mostly random pictures around the area but I wanted to capture the initial layer of snowfall and how it changes the texture of the landscape.  While I was ecstatic, my friend, on the other hand, was grumbling about extra time to warm the car, brushing the snow cover off the windshield, etc. etc.   I guess I’m still new to this idea of “winter.”

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

*sighs*

Where did my winter break go?  The spring semester is starting next week and once again my time for writing is rapidly dissipating.

Ethnic Cleansing in Los Angeles? And “Little Asia on the Hill?”

Posting an awesome analysis by Oliver, a colleague/friend of mine at Poplicks, about a recent op-ed piece in the LA Times about black/latino race relations. The article, Roots of Latino/Black Anger, was written by Tanya K. Hernandez and it’s generated a bit of discussion. Not because of what she raises as an important complex and much needed address on minority-minority relations and conflicts, but how she presents the material. Oliver’s critique is right on the mark. There’s also an accompanying piece in the New York Times about Asian Americans and higher education focusing on UC Berkeley by Timothy Egan called, Little Asia on the Hill — I guess it’s a derivation of “Harvard on the Hill” when someone goes to a not so great college. Oliver’s response raises some insightful points about educational policies like affirmative action and its relationship on Asian American students. It’s a damn good read not because he’s a sociologist, but because he’s an alum of UC Berkeley. It’s a really interesting perspective of then when he was an undergraduate, to now at CSU Long Beach as a professor in sociology.

New York Pix!

I have my pictures from New York loaded on Zoomr so click below to check it out. I didn’t bring my clunky digital camera, and instead used a simple 35mm automatic. Nothing fancy at all and it was easier to carry around. Some pictures had to be photoshopped (is that a word?) because I messed up on one thing or the other — either I was moving, or someone bumped into me, or just a bad angle. But with some cropping and the power of editing, I was able to salvage some shots. The photos are from MOMA, Museum of Natural History, Grand Central Station, Radio City Music Hall, Spuyten Duyvil, the subway at Bleeker Street, and south Bronx. The photo in the above header is an edited image of Grand Central Station.

Back To Work

*sighs*

New Year’s Eve in New York with great friends was fabulous!

Coming back to Arlington, VA, and getting ready for the Spring semester in two weeks is depressing.

Trying to write my chapter in two weeks is my goal.

Think I can do it?  Only one way to find out.

Dissertating Daze

These past 3 days I was amazingly productive on my last chapter.  I read 6 law review articles, 3 court cases, wrote 3 pages for my last chapter, and discovered a better argument to round out my second and third chapter.  I’m not surprised considering teaching does take up so much time and energy by itself.  As a matter of fact, it was a relief to be away from teaching and focusing on my immediate goal of just finishing my degree.

Oddly enough, at a moment when I am most productive, I’ll be taking a short 4 day vacation to New York to visit some friends starting tomorrow.   I’m quite excited to go considering I haven’t been to New York since I was 4 years old and I barely remember anything.  So I guess it’ll be all brand new for me.  But it feels like an interruption knowing that I’m on a roll and I should take advantage of it while it lasts even though I had planned the trip less than 2 months ago.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m very excited to go and I will enjoy my time there.  Nothing is easier than to forget about it writing a dissertation.  As a matter of fact, there are hundreds of ways to avoid the drudgery of writing and researching.  But there’s still only one way to actually finish it which is to sit and write.

Winter Vacation

Finally!  The semester is over!  I turned in my final grades and I am officially free.  I can’t wait until next weekend where my partner and I are heading to New York for vacation.  I’m not flying to California to visit my folks this year.  And considering the major blizzards and airport shutdowns, I am glad I didn’t.

I just want to read books, write my chapter, and play video games.  And I made some progress on my chapter researching the Virginia v. Black (2003) case.   Funny how I can make some headway when I don’t have a major obligation like teaching.

In general, I love my students and they’ve been great.  Though they need to stop using Google and Wikipedia as their sources.  They need to go to the library and read a book.  I wonder if any of them had ever picked up a book.  I’ve always enjoyed the tactile nature of being in a library and thumbing through a book’s pages.  The internet as a virtual library is wonderful, but it’s not the same experience.  They also need to be patient and allow the research to develop and evolve.  A question does not have to have an immediate answer, but that it takes time to develop.  It must be all that mocha frappucinoes they’ve been drinking.

At the same time, I need to rework my syllabus.  I think I have to incorporate more writing assignments, quizzes, and the like.  It was too easy a semester, but now that I have a better grasp of this course, I can shape it the way I want it.  I also realize that my theme for the course could have been better organized.  In some parts, it was just too random, without a certain coherence for students to follow, let alone an understanding of the stakes of democracy.  I also really ought to challenge students more and don’t let them off the hook so easily.  They didn’t get away with murder, but I certainly didn’t do enough to push them or have them be accountable.

Anyways, I’m off to see the matinee showing of Happy Feet.  Hooray!

Photography ~ Public Spaces

I am by no means a “real” photographer.  I dabbled quite a bit but I came across this photographer’s weblog and I really love his work.  It also helps that his photo essays are about my hometown of San Francisco.  Yes I do play favorites.  I also enjoy reading his accounts (article from Wired) when he’s out on one of his photography trips — and he gets harassed by the police or the local “rent-a-cops.”  This is what I fear when I actually do go out.  I hate being hassled.  It just ruins what you’re trying to photograph.  But I like the way Thomas Hawk, his pen name actually, approaches them and the irony of photographing what is presumably “public spaces.”

It’s really ironic.  He’s taken some wonderfully beautiful photographs of “The City” — events, neighborhoods, scenery, and buildings.  All of which everyone enjoys and photography is not only a way to preserve it, but to represent it as an experience to others.  But to have the police charge you with trespassing?  Or even attempt to take your camera away?  I understand that there are concerns about what the photographs may be used for, or even reveal.  But of public spaces like a Muni terminal?  What is this fear?  What does it mean when security and the protection of public space extends to its representation?

I should know better though that there’s a huge difference between taking a picture of Coit Tower and the old carpet of a BART train.  And the fear is how a picture of a public service program is going to be used to subvert funding, or justify budget cuts, or be used in a PR campaign to call for more environmentally safe public transportation.  Yes, a picture can do many things.  It is a politically powerful medium.  I think that’s why I like and fear this medium so much.

I have yet to go out on a photography trip of Arlington, VA, and Washington, DC — especially when I really do look at public spaces and not your usual tourist attractions.  I like taking what others often do not see and it’s usually quite random.  But at the same time, I also fear what others think of me when I’m there.  I am conscientious about that and every now and then I get a stare or two from the locals.  Sometimes I get a chat or two and what usually saves me is that I identify myself as a professor — yes, it’s my “Get Out of Jail” card.  A few minutes more of chatting about what I teach and that’s it.  No harm done.  But I think that’s what makes photography such an intriguing medium.  There’s no one else there but yourself, the camera, your eye and your wits.  It’s a productive tension.