This isn't so much cheese as much as its just totally un-apologetically bad. Like, really bad. Like, dangerously bad. I also remain convinced that a kazoo accompanies the dreadful vocals.
Friday, April 16, 2010
What About Me? Moving Pictures
Australian cheese that just won't die. I hate this more every time I see it.
Mentirosa
The video, "Mentirosa," is by Ráfaga, who according to Wikipedia is "one of the most important bands within the Argentine cumbia...the band characterises by medieval outfits and jewelry, sometimes becoming close to an image that can be described like a Liberace style." The video gets really interesting and especially cheesy around 1:40. Que disfruten!!
Friday, April 2, 2010
Computer innards
This is just the inside of my computer, but the more I look at this
photo, the more fascinated I am with the complexity of the shapes and
I love the blue and orange cables. Accidental art, to be sure.
Spring in Tucson!
My daily photo project is all but dead, but I got this photo today just strolling down the street. I love spring in Tucson. Weird, shriveled looking plants that I always think are dead suddenly start blooming. Its lovely.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Total Eclipse of the Heart Literal Version
The song "Total Eclipse of the Heart" has always sort of sucked, because its too cheesy and there's just too much flipping between crooning and ranting. Plus, the video is insane. Here's a lovely take off on the inanity that is the video. I've come to greatly appreciate and love this version: the Fonz, feathered hair, the Glee Club of the Damned, and an endless search for a ladies' room. What's not to love? :)
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
More media ridiculousness
Today's critique of media nonsense stems from this video: Since the threats mentioned in the video refer to black students, it makes total sense that interviewers talked to phenotypically white kids to find out their reactions to some graffitti that explicitly threatened black students. The one black student interviewed had to be identified by the news reporter as black. Without this critical tidbit of information, we could have easily accused this news segment of exhibiting bias. As is, we can only accuse the creators of this story of totally irresponsible reporting verging on bias. Supposedly, according to other internet media sources, the president of this institution, his wife, and their dog have gallantly offered to stay in the dorm where the threatening message was found. Somehow, this selfless and magnanimous gesture was meant to assure black students that, really, the threatening message wasn't aimed at white people. /end snarky rant Really, I can't even make this stuff up. Its like shooting fish in a barrel.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Main Stream News Crap
I should really stop reading the news. Its either depressing (Afghanistan, job reports, endless wars, political ineptitude, etc.), ridiculous (celebrity news, reality shows, Grammy awards, etc.) or just plain stupid and pisses me off. The news article that has prompted this pronouncement is the following, from the normally sensible Christian Science Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2010/0129/Is-Sarah-Palin-right-Did-feminist-groups-overthrow-the-Tebow-ad-attack This article, entitled "Is Sarah Palin Right?" suggests that we seriously investigate Sarah Palin's ludicrous announcement that the proposed Focus on the Family anti-choice Superbowl ad is somehow "pro-family" and "empowering for women." Here, I can put an end to all of this nonsense right now! No. This bizarre article then goes on to explain that if the National Organization for Women (NOW) hadn't have called so much attention to the proposed ad, then no one really would have noticed it. Even more bizarrely, some dude from the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University goes so far as to admonish NOW for even getting upset about the ad before having seen it. The implication being that its possible that the proposed Focus on the Family ad actually didn't (and won't and would never) contain anti-choice messages. Dude doesn't even stop there! He concludes his insightful analysis of the supposedly wacko anger of crazed feminists by saying, "That's not a very intelligent way to approach it [the ad]." Hey! Thanks, dude! Its so great when some douchebag steps in to explain to women how to do feminism right, because we just can't seem to figure it out. If feminists were somehow just more....well, intelligent, we wouldn't have to point out that the chances of Focus on the Family running an actually women friendly ad are approximately zilch. Palin, whose personal Facebook page now somehow counts as a sound news source, tops the Blier Center dude: "My message to these groups who are inexplicably offended by a pro-woman, pro-child, pro-life message airing during the Super Bowl: please concentrate on empowering women, help with efforts to prevent unexpected pregnancies, stay consistent with your message that for too long women have been made to feel like sex objects in our ‘modern’ culture and that we can expect better in 2010.” Inexplicably offended? How about just opposed to a certainly anti-choice, anti-woman, anti-feminist ad running in a coveted national advertising spot that will reach millions of people? Yeah, inexplicable and above all, remember, feminists just aren't very intelligent.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Not Thanksgiving
It is definitely not Thanksgiving. Nope. Really. Not even close. That, however, doesn't stop me from blatantly flaunting calendar conventions and posting this video of Paula Poundstone's dramatic reconstruction of the first Thanksgiving. It is, as one Youtube commenter notes, "sufficiently psychotic." It is also good to know that dogs had squeaky toys in the colonial period. If I ever have to teach colonial America again, I'm definitely showing this. Enjoy! :)
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
San Xavier del Bac
Here are some photos from my brief trip to the San Xavier del Bac Mission just outside Tucson, also known as the Dove of the Desert!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Thoughts about Laptop Insecurity
The tin foil in this hat may be affecting my brain, but lately I've been thinking over various disaster scenarios in which my laptop(s!) get stolen and all of my data is suddenly compromised. There was also this article: http://lifehacker.com/5445101/your-passwords-arent-as-secure-as-you-think-heres-how-to-fix-that Considering the fact that much of my research does and will take place in Zone 1 of Guatemala City makes me even more paranoid. Theft of the lappie is a super scary idea, so I've been considering various ways to mitigate this sort of potential risk. I am absolutely no expert on data security, so I'm just plugging the holes that I can find. Here's what I've been doing: 1. Using Keepass: (http://keepass.info/)
I've been using the same five passwords for about ten years now and its high time that I changed all of them to better ones. Of course, there's no way to remember long, randomly generated passwords, so Keepass is my new best friend. I've mentioned it before, but it really is amazing. I'm still in the process of changing all of my passwords to better ones and its turning out to be a massive project. I just realized not long ago that it can even store files, so I'm using it to store things like a PDF copy of my passport and other sensitive things that I may need access to while traveling. I'm keeping the databases in my Dropbox so that I may access them wherever. One thing I noticed on my recent trip to Guatemala was that many computers in internet cafes didn't necessarily have the .NET thing installed for Keepass to run. (I don't pretend to know what the .NET thingy is, but it is apparently not installed automatically everywhere around the world.) This left me without access to my Keepass database, so I solved this by using Portable Firefox and installing Xmarks (whose password I could actually remember. Note to self: change this one!). I like that Xmarks syncs my passwords around, but its really pretty insecure, considering that anyone who got ahold of my laptop or my flashdrive (which I am prone to losing) could just open up my Firefox installation and have access to all of my stored passwords. Boo. On to the next step. 2. Using a Firefox Master Password Double boo. This is a massive pain in the neck, as I have to enter the password every time I open Firefox, but it protects all of the other passwords. Firefox's password manager saves passwords in a way that's super easy to find. (Tools>Options>Security>Saved Passwords) I'm not using a master password for my desktop at home, as my apartment is fairly secure, but if the lappie disappears on the street, I don't want anyone to be able to easily get my passwords. This password is also stored in Keepass. 3. Lastpass (https://lastpass.com/)
I've disabled the password sync for Xmarks, as I'm also using Lastpass, which is a Firefox extension. It manages passwords as well, but does so through a webpage, although all of the data is encrypted locally before it leaves the computer. I'm still leery about storing things on it, so the important stuff still goes to Keepass and the things that I don't really care so much about, like my frequent flyer account, get stored in Lastpass. If it really works the way the developers claim, its a pretty good thing. Lastpass does autologin for sites once you log into it, which makes it handy. Its in beta, I believe, and isn't open source, so I imagine that someday the development team is going to start charging for it. 4. Stop checking "Remember Me" for anything.
No brainer. Just not a good idea, ever. 5. Experimenting with True Crypt (http://www.truecrypt.org/)
I don't store any super important documents on my computer, but there are some things that I'd like to keep encrypted, like the PDF copy of my passport, for example. True Crypt has a nice tutorial about how to make an encrypted file and I've made some test files for it. It seems to act just like a virtual disk when mounted and disappears when unmounted. It is going to take some more experimentation before I feel really comfortable with it. For example, what happens if you forget to unmount the virtual disk before shutting down the computer? I don't know, but I feel better knowing that important stuff on my computer is encrypted and the encrypted file is protected with another long, random password, also stored in Keepass. Further things to consider: I'm thinking about getting a laptop lock, one of those cable things. I do realize that this isn't going to stop determined people with bolt cutters, but it would be at least a small deterrent. At the archive in Guatemala City, I leave my lappie inside the reading room, as the risk of theft on the street is way greater than theft in the archive. The room is locked for lunch when we all leave, but it would probably be a good idea to anchor the lappie to the desk. (Plus, I've never seen people with bolt cutters in the archive...) My Linux box: I've installed Jolicloud on my netbook and I like it enough to keep it. Lamentably, I can't figure out how to use Keepass with it (which is hugely inconvenient), so I'm using Lastpass. Jolicloud has lots of "apps" that use Mozilla Prism to remember passwords. Before I started thinking about password security, I innocently checked the "remember" option, so that Prism would remember the passwords. I don't actually know how to disable this feature in Prism, so I'm stuck with the insecurity of that. I'm considering a clean install of Jolicloud and starting over, with an eye to not allowing Prism to remember passwords. Email: I like using a client for email (yes, its weird, I know), but will probably have to go back to manually entering the password everytime I need to read my mail in both Outlook and Thunderbird. Increased security apparently comes with increased inconvenience. Anyways, I'm hoping for the best and praying that the lappie doesn't ever get stolen, but if it does, I hope at least some of this will help mitigate potential catastrophes. Saludos!
I've been using the same five passwords for about ten years now and its high time that I changed all of them to better ones. Of course, there's no way to remember long, randomly generated passwords, so Keepass is my new best friend. I've mentioned it before, but it really is amazing. I'm still in the process of changing all of my passwords to better ones and its turning out to be a massive project. I just realized not long ago that it can even store files, so I'm using it to store things like a PDF copy of my passport and other sensitive things that I may need access to while traveling. I'm keeping the databases in my Dropbox so that I may access them wherever. One thing I noticed on my recent trip to Guatemala was that many computers in internet cafes didn't necessarily have the .NET thing installed for Keepass to run. (I don't pretend to know what the .NET thingy is, but it is apparently not installed automatically everywhere around the world.) This left me without access to my Keepass database, so I solved this by using Portable Firefox and installing Xmarks (whose password I could actually remember. Note to self: change this one!). I like that Xmarks syncs my passwords around, but its really pretty insecure, considering that anyone who got ahold of my laptop or my flashdrive (which I am prone to losing) could just open up my Firefox installation and have access to all of my stored passwords. Boo. On to the next step. 2. Using a Firefox Master Password Double boo. This is a massive pain in the neck, as I have to enter the password every time I open Firefox, but it protects all of the other passwords. Firefox's password manager saves passwords in a way that's super easy to find. (Tools>Options>Security>Saved Passwords) I'm not using a master password for my desktop at home, as my apartment is fairly secure, but if the lappie disappears on the street, I don't want anyone to be able to easily get my passwords. This password is also stored in Keepass. 3. Lastpass (https://lastpass.com/)
I've disabled the password sync for Xmarks, as I'm also using Lastpass, which is a Firefox extension. It manages passwords as well, but does so through a webpage, although all of the data is encrypted locally before it leaves the computer. I'm still leery about storing things on it, so the important stuff still goes to Keepass and the things that I don't really care so much about, like my frequent flyer account, get stored in Lastpass. If it really works the way the developers claim, its a pretty good thing. Lastpass does autologin for sites once you log into it, which makes it handy. Its in beta, I believe, and isn't open source, so I imagine that someday the development team is going to start charging for it. 4. Stop checking "Remember Me" for anything.
No brainer. Just not a good idea, ever. 5. Experimenting with True Crypt (http://www.truecrypt.org/)
I don't store any super important documents on my computer, but there are some things that I'd like to keep encrypted, like the PDF copy of my passport, for example. True Crypt has a nice tutorial about how to make an encrypted file and I've made some test files for it. It seems to act just like a virtual disk when mounted and disappears when unmounted. It is going to take some more experimentation before I feel really comfortable with it. For example, what happens if you forget to unmount the virtual disk before shutting down the computer? I don't know, but I feel better knowing that important stuff on my computer is encrypted and the encrypted file is protected with another long, random password, also stored in Keepass. Further things to consider: I'm thinking about getting a laptop lock, one of those cable things. I do realize that this isn't going to stop determined people with bolt cutters, but it would be at least a small deterrent. At the archive in Guatemala City, I leave my lappie inside the reading room, as the risk of theft on the street is way greater than theft in the archive. The room is locked for lunch when we all leave, but it would probably be a good idea to anchor the lappie to the desk. (Plus, I've never seen people with bolt cutters in the archive...) My Linux box: I've installed Jolicloud on my netbook and I like it enough to keep it. Lamentably, I can't figure out how to use Keepass with it (which is hugely inconvenient), so I'm using Lastpass. Jolicloud has lots of "apps" that use Mozilla Prism to remember passwords. Before I started thinking about password security, I innocently checked the "remember" option, so that Prism would remember the passwords. I don't actually know how to disable this feature in Prism, so I'm stuck with the insecurity of that. I'm considering a clean install of Jolicloud and starting over, with an eye to not allowing Prism to remember passwords. Email: I like using a client for email (yes, its weird, I know), but will probably have to go back to manually entering the password everytime I need to read my mail in both Outlook and Thunderbird. Increased security apparently comes with increased inconvenience. Anyways, I'm hoping for the best and praying that the lappie doesn't ever get stolen, but if it does, I hope at least some of this will help mitigate potential catastrophes. Saludos!
Friday, January 15, 2010
First day of class
Today wasn't technically the first day of class. That dubious honor went to Wednesday, but today was the first day that I actually had to teach my three discussion sections. I left my house bright and early, imagining that I would amaze my class by making them copies of a syllabus that resembled every other syllabus on the planet. At 8am, despite the sign that assured me that the copy/mail room would be open from 8am-5pm, the door remained firmly locked. I don't have keys, as my status as a grad student peon ensures that I lack the authority to actually do things like unlock doors. At 8:30am, the door still showed no signs of opening, despite my frequent evil stares and tries at the handle. The philosophy department down the hall had a key, but the secretary couldn't find it and told me she hoped that she hadn't left the key dangling in the door at some indeterminate time last week. Realizing that I wouldn't have copies, I left the department and headed to my classroom with only a single copy of the syllabus. I finally found my classroom and quickly discovered that the door, like that of the copy room, remained locked, despite my prayers and attempts to open it. Fortunately, this locked classroom door scenario had happened to me before and I knew that salvation could be found in a quick call to Room Scheduling. Being a trained professional, I didn't panic. Alas, I couldn't remember the number and resorted to dialing random university-sounding numbers in an attempt to get transferred to the elusive Room Scheduling office. After finally reaching the Geosciences department, the department secretary transferred me to the right number. "Um," I stammered, "I'm supposed to be teaching in Education 502 and the door to that room is locked." The man on the phone remained unmoved by my plight. "Did you try the handle?" he asked. It was one of those moments when I actually stared at the phone for a second. Did I try the handle? OFCOURSEITRIEDTHEHANDLE! What else would I have done? How else would I know it was locked? After convincing him that the door really was locked, he agreed to send someone to help. Upon finally gaining entrance to the room, I was reasonably sure that nothing else would or could go wrong. Surprise! I had no class rosters. I logged on to the system and consistently received a message that I had no students listed for this semester. Without a syllabus or any idea of how many students I had or who they might be, the semester began. It was an awesome day. And by awesome, I mean utterly ridiculous. Happy Friday!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Foto
The photo project is stalling, mostly because I think Guatemala is so
much more photogenic. Nevertheless, I'm still trying to find
interesting and beautiful things in my daily environment. Bouganvillea
doesn't seem to grow well here in Tucson, so it was a treat to find it
climbing up this wall.
thesis link
I didn't archive my M.A. thesis with the University, but I'm sharing it on Scribd. for the three people on the planet who might be interested. http://www.scribd.com/doc/25240148 My thesis is a cultural history of last nineteenth century Guatemala examines a world's fair held in there in 1897. I argue that fair organizers, in addition to promoting the fair as a way to stimulate investment and immigration, used visual culture to transform discourses about Mayan Indians that portrayed them as barbaric savages to a modern workforce for the purpose of coffee cultivation. I can see places where it still needs some work and places where I need to rethink some thing, but I suppose that's what the dissertation is for. Anyways, this is a personal, unpublished work, so please don't cite it, even if you do happen to think that its brilliant. Cheers!
Monday, January 11, 2010
Foto!
It has been hard to find photogenic material in the airport, so I'm
posting this nice picture instead. This is from my Kaqchikel class,
when we went to make these reed mats, known in Spanish as petates.
Petates are super useful, as people sleep on them, kneel on them to
weave, and they make nice pictures.
these to save my life. To spare myself further humiliation, I
volunteered to photograph the project instead! It was a wise choice.
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