Last night we saw Marisol, the final play of the season at the university. Afterwards, I thought if I had to choose one word to describe it, that word would be "shrill." The performances were strong, the set was excellent, the sound, music, lighting was great. It presented a lot to think about...was Marisol already dead the whole time? Was it a vision the future or the present full of symbolism? It did a good job of displaying the ever-present fear and grittiness of a dangerous, lonely urban landscape. On the other hand, the story was a nightmare. Many of the references to God were offensive, and it left me with a terrible headache - not a migraine exactly, but from tension, frustration and anxiety - one of the back-of-the-head, back-of-the-neck variety. It didn't help that the the theatre felt like it was about 150 degrees.

The audience was 95% students this time, and many were required to go for some class. They had to write a paper, and some were taking notes. I don't think it is a stretch to observe that many didn't care for the play, and that it also may have been "over the heads" of some. That's not intended as an insult, the play was confusing, and I think life experience helps with interpreting it. That's not to say I really "got" it, either. But I keep coming back to shrill. That sums it up.

Anyway, all in all, the theatre department's performances are impressive, and a bargain. After seeing all four shows this year, I am definitely going to get season's tickets next year.

Fountain Day has quieted down. Only four students (out of 39) showed up at class today.

Today is Fountain Day. The din is...deafening. (I know, that is redundant). I think I will have to cancel class.

I am finally caught up! It took my just over a month to recover from the computer crash. Just in time for the end of the semester deadlines...

Actually - I'm caught up for my classes. In terms of things I wanted to do (install and try out DSL, follow up on the Mimmie book) I am still behind. And, there are several tasks I still have to do to be at status quo with the Netvista - I did not reinstall much software.

But it still feels good to have all the student work evaluated.

And, the beautiful weather meant I just had to steal away and do some yardwork.

I'm fuming about this pending bill. (Thanks to ML). Some nitwits have introduced legislation in the assembly that would require dog owners to carry liability insurance. That is the most infuriating part of the proposal, but new orange tags that all dogs must wear proving they are insured is another provision. They have labeled this waste of time "Elijah's Law," for some little kid who was mauled by a Rottweiler. Now, I have all the sympathy in the world for his family, and no patience with people who have mean dogs, but I really dislike the recent years' obsession with plastering some victim's name on all these absurd pieces of legislation (except, that is, the Buster Bill, because it protects animals from abuse). {Is that logical? No...but don't you dare mess with animals.} I also dislike so-called dangerous breed bans. There are no dangerous breeds, just screwed up, good for nothing people.

Anyway, I greatly resent the idea that because some loser owns a mean dog that hurt a child, I have to carry insurance on my dogs, who are never allowed out of my sight, spend their lives in fenced yards, and when we go for a walk - they are always leashed. They are both licensed. They are actually not really child proof - oh, Rudy is good natured enough, but Sophie has too many of her own needs to have patience for kids. But they are not exactly kid maulers either, and they are never around little kids, dog-fearing types and dog haters unless Bob or I are around (actually, they are never around dog haters at all, because I wouldn't spend one minute of my time with such people). I am not going for one more legal scam (insurance), and my dogs are not wearing stupid orange tags. The dog warden can just try to seize them. Make my day.

Well - the bill was referred to committee. Hopefully, there it will stay. I tried to call up the email address for my two representatives - Castleton and Samsonville - and guess what? I went into hourglass never-never land. Of course! Wouldn't want constituent input or anything.

A few days ago, my niece went on a trip to Montreal with 4H, and on the last day, someone stole their van, with all the teens' and chaperone's luggage, etc. inside. She lost many CDs, some clothes, school notebooks, and a scarf that she was almost finished making; my mother recently taught her to knit and this was her first project. What mean, miserable person would rip off the Cornell Cooperative Extension and some kids, I wonder? It is sad for them to be taught a lesson in losing trust, on what should have been a fun experience, one of their first times traveling without family.

On a brighter note, a few weeks ago, a friend of mine in Minnesota asked me to send her a picture of a sign of Spring, as soon as I had one. Well - I've had all sorts of computer problems, a big work backlog, plus not much time to play with my camera, and Spring has been very slow in arriving. But, I have been looking. Last weekend, in Samsonville, I found a bulb coming up - but the camera wasn't handy. The season isn't quite as advanced in Castleton, but in the freezing cold temperatures of Monday, I ventured out to find something. I took a quick picture of some tiger lilies. It isn't a very nice picture, but that is all I could manage. Then, today, the weather is nicer and I saw that the lilac is starting to bud.



Now this is cheating, I'm sure there is this sign of Spring in supermarkets everywhere.

This is irritating. I want those creeps to fry.

I think I will need to catch up on the missed week of work during the break (April 2-8). The weather is beautiful today and the last thing I feel like doing is focus on evaluating student work...but this has been a very busy week and this is the first day I have been able to get to the backlog, so oh well, I have no choice. The computer is still working fine, but I have not bothered to reinstall everything. That's something that will have to wait until break, after I am caught up.

I taught my first graduate class last night, as a favor to a colleague who had to go out of town. It was great, and really makes me want to teach at that level.

My Netvista computer crashed on Monday. It was frozen when I went to use it in the morning and then it wouldn't boot. Nothing obvious was wrong when I ran diagnostics, but I didn't want to reformat/reinstall Windows XP because we have a lot of files on that machine. Were they backed up? Of course not.

I borrowed a Windows XP disk from someone (my recovery disk is on the hard drive, and it doesn't allow anything except diagnostics, or reformat/reinstall) and backed up/replaced registry files, then I managed to get the PC into safe mode. That was 3 am, late Tuesday/early Wednesday. The good news was, all the files were there. The bad news was it wasn't seeing the floppy drive or network, it couldn't get on the internet, or write to the CD drive.

After playing around the next day, I got the floppy drive back. However, I figured it would take about 5000 disks and the rest of my life to copy all the data. So, we went to Staples and got a zip drive. {An aside, it is a neat toy.} I installed that, and successfully copied the files.

Then I reformatted and reinstalled Windows. Everything worked, except for three things (audio, ethernet, sm bus). So, now I have the zip drive plugged into Old Faithful (the Aptiva) and I am downloading the drivers. It is a very (!)slow process over a dial-up connection. I can't believe it has taken me 4 days to get this far, and still I cannot use my cable modem.

I am using my dial-up connection to check email etc., but for my university Outlook account, access that way is slow and unreliable. So I am only responding to the most critical email. It will probably take me another week to catch up on all the work I have neglected.

All in the Timing (the play we saw on Saturday) was great, I think it was the best we've seen this season at the campus.

On Sunday we went to see The Passion of the Christ. It was a wonderful, powerful movie. Something I liked a lot was that it was subtitled, which was so appropriate. It was not at all anti-Semitic, I believe that controversy was generated by people who did not see the movie, or maybe they are anti-Christian/anti-Catholic, or perhaps just plain ignorant. It brought tears to my eyes twice. There were some very violent scenes, and for that reason I was hesitant to see it, but I just averted my eyes a few times. It was not gratuitous violence. My sister remarked that it made her want to read the Bible, something she had not done in quite a while, and it had that impact on me, too. Some have asked, for a non-Christian is it worthwhile to see? I am not sure; I think it may be of interest to someone who is of a different religion, but I am not sure whether atheists would appreciate it. I know some reviewers have praised it on technical grounds, but as it is very much a spiritual experience I am not sure whether it would be appealing to non-believers. Something to think about.

Since I worked so much last weekend, and my classes are in fairly good shape, I managed to fit in some reading for fun: I just finished Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride. No surprise here - a good read, as usual.

Tonight we are going to the third play of the season at the university.

Today, after it stopped pouring rain, I looked outside, and most of the snow and ice were gone, even in the fenced area of the yard, where it lasts the longest. The condition of the yard has been really bothering me -- it always does in the spring. Snow is predicted for tomorrow and Monday - so this was a window of opportunity. I love to do yardwork, but with two dogs, the yard really is disgusting after the winter. I keep up with it in good weather, but once it is freezing, there is snow cover and it is dark at 4 pm, I don't bother.

My annual Spring task is so awful, that a new vocabulary would have to be invented to describe it. I gave it a try last year. I am so relieved to be done, breaking my last year's earliest-ever record. I feel quite accomplished. Ha! Should I add the bullet to my CV? Seriously, Rudy is a good dog, and he deserves a nice yard (not that Sophie doesn't, but she cares less about such things. Rudy is very fastidious).

Anyway, as I worked on my words-are-inadequate-to-do-it-justice task, I was thinking, this might be a good punishment for Martha Stewart. She can come to my house annually each Spring, and apply her vast skills to making turd patrol a "good thing."

Yesterday, Preservation magazine arrived in the mail. I love Preservation, but the cover story really irritated me.

For the record, I oppose the new cement plant. My feelings come not because of the various environmental impacts regarding pollution that are being debated. I don't know whose science is best, and it doesn't matter to me. I oppose the plant because of something aesthetic: the impact on the view of the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains from Frederick Church's Olana. (That view is what I use as the logo image on Gully Brook Press - both the actual photograph on the homepage, and the graphic I made from it for this journal). My reason agrees with the viewpoint of the Preservation writer, so why am I irritated?

A few weeks ago Bob and I were talking about another environmental controversy, that in some ways mirrors the tensions generated by the cement plant. In this case, it is the proposed construction of a big resort on a mountainside in Shandaken, Ulster County. We both lean toward being opposed to that project as well. However, I was reading aloud some letters to the editor in the local paper, and Bob commented, "I dislike the corporate opposition as much as a I dislike the corporate support for it," and that really hits the nail on the head for me. The big environmental groups, and outsider opponents to these projects alienate me every bit as much as the big business interests that are pushing for approval.

In the case of Preservation's article, I am not angry that the issue was covered, I believe the publicity is good. I am not against Preservation taking a position opposed to the plant. I think they should be against it. What bothers me is that the article is so slanted - it does not make any effort at all to cover the other side; it is as if the other side was solely the cement company, that no local person or town government official wanted the plant to be built, and that there would be no reason for support. This isn't exactly stated - but supporters are just ignored. I guess Preservation is proud to be elitist.

Yet here are just a few excerpts from other sources that detail the issue is a contentious one, with various and dearly-held beliefs on both sides:

"It is sometimes hard to remember what Columbia County looked like without the red and blue signs now spattered across the landscape, people?s front yards, windows, and storefronts." Joseph A. Brill, Chronogram, 2002.

"...drive through any community near Hudson and you'll see placards in dozens of front yards--red for those against the plant, blue for those in favor." Patrick Smith, Business Week online, July 1, 2002.

"Hundreds of supporters wearing bright blue T-shirts and opponents clad in dusty rose T-shirts, packed into the un-airconditioned gymnasium..." William Tuthill, the Business Review, June 20, 2001

"The petition signature, the bumper sticker, T-shirt or casual comment became shorthand for who you were and what you believed about all sorts of unrelated issues, as if the totality of a person's life could be summarized on a lawn sign. " Editorial from October 26, 2001 Independent.

"Travel any road in the county and you can see red STOP THE PLANT or blue SUPPORT THE PLANT signs on front lawns," Ralph Gardner, Cry them a river, New York Magazine.

The first story, from the Chronogram, is the best of the bunch - it is fair, balanced, covers the issue in appropriate and accessible detail. The Preservation writer could take a lesson from this piece.

On the other hand, I suppose I should be happy that Preservation decided ignoring the alternative viewpoints would be better than using a quote like this one (from Cry Them a River) that characterizes it this way:

"It's really sad," says a local antiques dealer. "Every dilapidated house has a blue sign in front of it. And every beautiful, well-maintained house has a red sign in front of it."

I believe it is ignorant to describe the two sides this way, but I think the perception may hit the nail on the head - Preservation always pays lip service to historic issues that celebrate the lower classes, folks who have been under-represented, and unfairly represented in the past. So how do you champion the romantic Hudson River School, wealthy darlings of the artsy set, without mentioning the less advantaged -- both from those times, and today? Better to hold a hanky over your nose and keep your pinky in the air and pretend to not notice. Ahem.

It was probably better to overlook this view (also from Cry Them a River):

One weekender sees the locals' support for the project as a failure of American public education. "I think we're generally better-educated and more sophisticated than the locals," he says, explaining why they can't see through St. Lawrence's P.R. offensive. "I don't want to discuss the intelligence of the locals; that's terrible. But look at the schools in Columbia County. They're awful.

Now there's a quote that really makes the blood of this here local boil!

Two observations; maybe I just see things in a different way (wouldn't be the only time), but...first, the media's reporting about California passing the bond issues by 2/3 majority as a surprise because not long ago the polls were showing low support strikes me as missing the point. To me it says, wake up. Media often is so biased and out of touch, and opinion polls are not very accurate.

Second, we watched the DVD Beijing Bicycle last night (it was very good). The sleeve of the DVD had a sticker with a brief description. It said something about "a 16 year-old-boy learning the value of sharing." Huh. Could've fooled me. I thought it was about a boy (finally!!) taking charge, growing up, becoming an adult.

On the subject of DVDs -- been too busy to watch very many, but we have seen Pirates of the Caribbean (which was great! And that's saying a lot, because it is not at all my type of movie...in fact - I'm sure Sean Penn was excellent in Mystic River (I didn't see it yet), but I was rooting for Johnny Depp) and Pirates of Penzance (umm...I love live musicals, but it was hard to sit through on DVD). Elephant Man we had already seen anyway, but the DVD was damaged and would only play half (a serious criticism of this mostly wonderful technology).

And we went to the movies to see 50 First Dates, which was kind of sad, but great.

Do you know, I completely forgot. Monday was the two year anniversary of this online journal!

We are studying philosophy of education in social foundations. Students took a quiz to help determine which of five major philosophies they prefer. In the day class, about half the students (there are 39) favored progressivism, and the other half favored essentialism. I think there was one student who preferred existentialism, and one who was about evenly divided in terms of essentialism and progressivism. In the night class (37 students), one student was evenly divided between essentialism and progressivism, two students preferred essentialism, one preferred behaviorism, and all the rest favored progressivism. In the online class (17 students), it is harder to determine, because even though the quiz is available and there is a discussion question about it, not all students choose to address that question. But, so far, the students who are sharing thoughts about educational philosophy seem to favor progressivism.

All of which got me thinking. Sometimes in class I despair about the lack of discussion and participation, and it seems that chalk-and-talk is way too dominant. Then there are classes when the students are so involved that it is not possible to cover all the planned material. It varies from semester to semester, and class to class. The night class is very interactive, The day class is quieter, and I spend a lot of time thinking about how to encourage participation. After the quiz results, I was thinking, the greater number of essentialists than usual in the day class means that for at least half of the class, lecture is preferred much of the time. On the other hand, the strong majority of progressives in the night class means they are probably less satisfied on those days when I "deliver" a lecture. Something to keep in mind.

I agree with this article, I definitely get less telemarketing calls since I signed up for Do Not Call. I signed up for the New York list when it first came out. That was quite a while ago, and although it took a little while, it was effective. I guess now it has been converted to a Federal registry, I know it was automatic if you were already signed up at the State level.

In terms of spam, I am not sure. I still get too many, but I think the number may have decreased. Whether that is because of the registry, or spam blocking features in email, who knows?

I should sign up for paper junk mail elimination too, although I think that is still cumbersome, not an easy website process like Do Not Call. Hmmm. Something to investigate. Every two weeks we have curbside pickup of paper for recycling, and I can never believe how much of the bin is junk mail, especially annoying credit card offers. Such waste!

I am teaching right now...actually the students are working in groups on a project so I decided to run up to my office rather than pace the classroom, my other alternative (and usual method).

I often wonder about the dynamics of groups - not just the small-ish ones that are working in my class, but the entire cohort, the night class compared to the day class compared to the online course, compared to last semester's, compared to summer session, compared to last year. My night class this semester is so interactive - if I lecture for two sentences - hands are up, questions asked, comments made...if I ask a question there is a field of hands in the air. If we do a group project, during the reporting out session, we barely cover half the material because there is so much discussion.

Then there are cohorts where row after row of students sit there with blank stares, or closed eyes, or fidgeting, hoping to get out five minutes early. What gives, it is the same instructor, similar curriculum, just the times of day and delivery mode differ, and it is never the same cohort that is engaged (sometimes it is the online class, sometimes it is the day class, sometimes it is the night class). I speculated that course size has something to do with it, but that doesn't seem to account for it either. I conclude that peer influences are very powerful. Several engaged students lead and that translates to a good class -- on the other hand, several bored students drag it down and that makes for a poor one.

Back by popular demand? After an eight month hiatus, there is a new virtual museum over at Gully Brook Press.

When I was updating the pages, I decided to delete the references to a tracking service I added last year. It was more hassle than it was worth, I hated the banners it inserted, and I can't even remember the password - it wasn't something of my choosing. I only removed it on a couple of pages, I will get to the rest eventually. Anyway, in the process, I deleted the background colors. But I may keep it transparent - I so rarely make changes, that this one, although unintentional, is refreshing!

We saw another DVD, "Frida," and cut short the recent loser movie trend. It was interesting, as are most artist-biographies.

Almost forgot! The next movie up was "Confidence." Another loser! It was terrible.