Need another look?

Doesn't this rabbit look real? It's name is Double Take, and, though you may or may not recognize it, it misses you!

Laying down the blind

I just found this article about a genetic basis for gayness on a website, and it's made me sort of paranoid. I have always thought that there was a reason not to really get on the "it's all genetic" bandwagon, and I feel like this article confirms my suspicions. At the same time, however, I also don't care for the conservative Christian doubts about evolutions. This article is interesting because it suggests that at least one man in the Christian right is more frightened of gay people than he is of evolution, and that he would be willing to play around with genetics in order to eliminate homosexuality from existence. This will have me thinking for days.

McCain's Unsafe Stumping

I discovered these comments while taking a break from research this morning, and I can't believe that more politicians are following Bush and the neocons on the discussion of safe sex. Not only is McCain promoting abstinence, but he is unwilling to even admit that condoms reduce the spread of HIV. This just fits right in with the myriad of ways that bizarre religious concerns and paranoid suspicions about the validity of science have been informing policy and the political sphere since Bush took office. How in the world can a man be president or even be a serious contender when he won't, as a world leader, say that condoms reduce the spread of HIV? And let's face it, the question didn't stump him. Of course he knows the answer, but apparently enough people haven't died of AIDS for Mr. McCain to get the picture about the disease and realize that being honest about the benefits of condoms will help lower the rates at which HIV spreads.

In the future, our teenagers will all not only be avid readers of the Left Behind series and good takers of standardized tests (no child will be left behind there), but they'll also have lung cancer and a bevy of STDs to boot.

The Evil Lynn of Hate Speech

I'm including a photo of this funny (bizarre, not ha ha) lady because she's been on my mind lately, ever since she called John Edwards what has popular gained a name as F-word #2. What surprises me about this entire scenario is how much it interests me. To be honest, she has been discredited numerous times as a bad scholar who only appeals to people because of the shocking things she says. This is understood. She's a personality that attracts viewers and ratings, and so it makes sense that she's as successful as she is. Maybe I'm just incredibly predictible when it comes to the media, but I too have been sucked in by all the coverage, not to mention her sheer goofyness (take for instance this picture, which is on her own website). After all, paying attention to anything she says diverts me from paying attention to real issues that have costs in the realm of lived lives. I already devote a lot of my time to questions of representation, language, and politics, so maybe that makes me drawn to coverage like her comment about Edwards. At the same time, I'm curious as to why people (me included) are so caught up in these ridiculous media celebrities instead of being concerned about the big picture issues such as dying soldiers and civilians in Iraq, global warming, increasing economic inequalities in the US, and more. Evil Lynn to Hannity's skeletor (or is he more beast man??), she's not even remotely interesting to think about, read, or hear speak. How was I able to be convinced otherwise?

What is the point of the news media celebrity? Just distraction pure and simple?

New format and Battlestar

Though I haven't totally transferred things over to Ning (yet), I did think my blog needed something new and fresh. I know it looks like a cheap knockoff of the JK Rowling website, but I'm willing to live with that.

I just wanted to mention how amazing I've found the last two episodes Battlestar that I've seen. I only caught up with the current episodes a few weeks ago after getting a season pass for season three from iTunes, and I'd been somewhat disappointed about the way the recent episodes had lost momentum. Last night's and last week's episodes (Maelstrom and A Son Also Rises) have been great. I'm glad to see that the show's back on track and I'm really anticipating the finale of the third season. I'm glad that I've found a show this engaging, and it's in some ways comforting to return to the fold of sci fi geekery.

Vegas

Kevin and I returned from Las Vegas Wednesday of this week. I've posted some of the pictures on my normal flickr account, but we also pooled our pictures (and a few videos) and put them up on Kevin's Picasa page. We had a great time, and experimented one day by heading out to the dessert for a hike. I had never done this before in the LV area, and, as you'll see from the pictures, it was well worth it.

In the meantime, I am working on finishing the dissertation!

A Job!

The Pyramid
Originally uploaded by Bigrextinct.

Some of you may know this already, but I wanted to announce here that I accepted a job at California State University, Long Beach, earlier this week. I'm very excited about the position, partly because it means that I will finally be an English professor (and no longer a grad student) but also because I'll be teaching courses (both surveys and seminars) in my field. The students at Long Beach seem great, and the area is very pretty and gay friendly. I'll join the department in August, and I'll be finishing the dissertation before that in the summer. After years of grad school, it's really a shock to be thinking about moving away from Charlottesville, and, in this case, moving to California. Either way, I'm very excited. If you're interested in coming to California for a trip, don't forget to head down to Long Beach--my new center of operations come the fall!

Japanese Garden

Japanese Garden
Originally uploaded by Bigrextinct.

Though far from the Humanities building, this Japanese garden is part of the Long Beach Campus. The khoi in the pond there are massive. When I was visiting, I thought they were going to devour a duck whole.