Dr. B.'s Blog - Not Just Another Angry Negro

Happy Blogiversary to Me! (blogging metatheory)

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 11:38:10 -0400

As cheesy as it is it's true. Today is my blogiversary and Dr. B.'s Blog and I are celebrating our 4th!

4 years ago I started my first official blog. 2 years before that on October 10, 1999 I started blogging before blogging was cool. I was a fesh faced grad student keeping a writing journal online (with a webcam) to track progress of my dissertation writing.

Lately, there's been discussion on one of the professional listserv of whether or not teachers who use blogs should blog...my answer is hell yeah. I may be biased, but I think that we can't effective teach with a technology unless we know how it works mechanically, theoretically, and pedagogically.

We teach by example, they learn by practice. The two of those things together make the answer to the question "Do we have to blog with our students?" a resounding "hell yeah!"

No offense to anyone, but more and more it feels like folks wanna do things in the classroom in order to be cool without thinking it through, fully theorizing, or even necessarily knowing what they are doing. It is for that reason that I continue to mentor incoming GTAs year after year. I want them to know why they do what they do so that they can do it well.

Hell I've wasted plenty of time playing with new technologies that I thought had pedagogical value before I chucked them out. You gotta play with it yourself before you spring it on students. You gotta know that it will work for you . Just because it worked for everyone else damn sho' don't mean it'll work for you. We have to realize that all teachers are not the same.

:slowly puts the soapbox back under the desk

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

Some Things Are Just Wrong...

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:39:33 -0400

and one of those things is Josh Groban singing the theme to The Jeffersons! Surpringingly he didn't do too bad with the theme from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air!

He just doesn't have the ethos to carry off The Jeffersons.

On NOLA and a Sense of Loss

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:09:59 -0400

I fully recognize the need for tourists to go back to NOLA, but as a 20 year "regular" (pre-Katrina) I was sickened by what I saw and heard from the locals while I was at CCCC last week. I was afraid to go back and more and more I am wishing that I had not. The Quarter and the Convention Center area have been restored for the most part but the Ward and the East side are now (for the most part) non-existent. Natives trying to return to the area are finding that they have to leave again because they are no longer able to get the jobs that they have held for so long. I miss the NOLA that I knew, the corner bars and Po' Boy/Gumbo spots and the love of a people like no other.

This shit really pisses me off. Three years later we still see FEMA trailers and tent cities are popping up under overpasses. You still see houses marked with the mark of the dead. People are homeless, desperate, and hungry. While poverty is not something new to these folks they now find themselves alone with no community or family left to lean on. What pisses me off even more is the accusatory looks that I got from folks because African American natives chose me to speak to, converse with, commiserate with, share with...quit fucking whining about "discrimination" and understand (or at least don't share with me) because when I am faced with the REALITY of Katrina 3 fucking years later I can really give less than a shit if you are mad because a young African American woman hands me a flier for a poetry slam and ignores you or comes to me first at a counter or speaks to me on the street (did you speak to them first or clutch your pocketbook a little tighter when they rounded the corner?). Really???...is that your biggest concern about what you have seen (or chosen not to) while in New Orleans?

If you are offended by what I have written maybe you need to be. In the end, one can only pray that the real New Orleans can one day be resurrected.

It's Completely Innocent I Tell you!

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 23:17:17 -0500

The US Army is sponsoring an XBox/Halo 3 contest. Of course they are not looking for strategists and sharpshooters to recruit, but their contest is only open to US residents over the age of 18.

Of course you do have to register your gamertag (XBox Live username) and confirm your account information which includes your name, address, etc. but I'm sure they wouldn't want to use that to contact folks.

Is this a sign that America's Army for the 360 is not doing so hot? Come on ya'll get outta my gaming.

Xbox.com | Calendar of Events - U.S. Army Heavy Weapons Play & Win Sweepstakes

Class Starts (Again) Tomorrow

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 01:00:49 -0500

but I am up late taking the Electoral Compass Quiz. I promise that I didn't cheat in order to align myself with one candidate or another, but I find myself most closely aligned with (you guessed it...my politi-crush) Barack Obama and furthest away from Fred Thompson (yeah, like we need another actor for president).

After the quiz you can go in to see how your answers compare to various candidates (Obama and I answered almost completely the same on all of the issues), debate transcripts, and links to other news sources that offer information about the candidates' stances on the issues. Very cool use of the politi-nets.

Ok, I am going to bed!

Blog Stats

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:52:41 -0500

No more looking at blog stats until after the 2008 elections. Is anyone surprised that all of this weeks' hits from the keyword search "nig*er president" have come from South Carolina? Is this any indication of how Obama is going to do in the primary down there?

It's my sneaking suspicion that Obama and Edwards will end up on a ticket together in the end. Will Edwards' South Carolinian supporters be pissed at him in the end?

Jim Watson Has Mad Cow Disease

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 13:12:18 -0400

Now this won't make much sense if you don't watch Boston Legal. William Shatner's character, Denny Crane, is a crazy, dangerous, but amusing character who clearly has Alzheimer's but only claims mad cow. He shoots at homeless people, accosts, women, and makes inappropriate racial remarks.

Now don't get me wrong. I don't think that Watson is either innocent or funny. He is clearly a racist nutbag who has lost his fucking mind. Alzheimer's has settled in and he no longer knows his usual cronies (who he's been sharing these viewing with all of his life) from the media. Doesn't anyone else think that it's interesting that he's only started going public with these comments in (aborting fetuses with gay genes, stupidity as a disease, etc) in the last 10 years? Yep, 70 is a good age for nutbag's mind-mouth barrier to break down.

When you think about it doesn't it make sense that a racist nutbag with a strong belief in eugenics would devote his life to mapping DNA? This is a perfect example for our students (and for us) of choosing research areas that we are deeply invested in so that we do solid work. Nobel laureate nutbag was probably pretty sure that he would be the one to map the human genome and be able to zap out gay, black, and stupid genes at the very least!

The sad this is that in this vein of thinking Senor Nutbag (because I am sure that he would want to be among the "Latin lovers") must now either go and stick his head in an oven or OD on Viagra since he has become one of the inferior/damaged brood.

Nutbag's apology and story at CNN.com

Watson, 79, an American who won the 1962 Nobel prize for his role in the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA, told the Sunday Times he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours, whereas all the testing says not really."

Lego Zelda...Kid Style

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 10:43:14 -0400

Lauren's super cute kid, Ethan, and his cousin have made a stop-motion animation film of Zelda all by their lonesome! I have to say that it is awesome and the awesomeness of the video is only improved by how cute Ethan's audio is! I knew that I should have run off with that kid when Lauren first introduced me to him.

Now that I am done gushing over Ethan, let me just say that this is the kind of creativity and effort that I would love to see out of most college kids! Leave a couple of ingenious kids alone for a while and see what they come up with? As for them uploading it to You Tube all on their own...Lauren you better watch out, you never know when the kid might be filming :-)

Alright now head on over to Faux Real and tell Ethan and Lauren (formerly of Feministe fame) how awesome he is! Share his video with all of your friends and colleagues. She may have a new Spielberg on her hands!

6 Friggin' Years!

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:04:15 -0400

Can you believe it? It's my blogiversary! My blogging madness began 6 years ago today! Six years of writing blogs entries about stuff that motivates me, pisses me oof, or stuff that I just think that I might need to remember later.

Over the years I have pissed plenty of folks off, but that's okay it happens in person too. Here's to 6 more years of venting and pissing folks off!

Capcom's Resident Evil 5 Drawing Fire

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 18:07:39 -0400

Joystiq has written about the fact that a blogger over at Black Looks has taken offense to the trailer for Capcom's upcoming Resident Evil 5 (and the setting of the game itself). RE5 appears to take place in an African country this time Chris Redfield is back and killing African zombies.

The trailer starts off with chanting and progresses with driving tribal beats. Ok, I get it. It's atmosphere. As Alexander points out over at joystiq, the zombies in previous REs have been largely white (loosely defined) and have been shot by white men and no one has raised an eyebrow, but what Alex (and the developers on this project) have failed to see is the fact that nothing, video games included, happens in a vacuum.

This isn't just a white soldier shooting African zombies. There is too much cultural baggage associated with this pairing both here in the US and on the African continent. Soldiers participating in what looks like genocide? One white man winning out over hordes of Africans? There is too much tied up in this situation for it to be benign. How can you not expect folks not to get upset? Looking over the comments at Joystiq and those that have spilled over to Black Looks one can see that these nuances are truly lost on the general public. The comments themselves are racist, the ignorance abounds.

When you consider the rhetorical and cultural contexts of the military and African countries this game becomes no more than another racist simulation like those used to recruit for and entertain white supremicist groups. It feels oddly like Border Patrol or Ethnic Cleansing. I'm sure that there are folks who are going to disagree vehemently with m, but I ask that ya'll keep it respectful.

Soon to be cross-posted at Joystick 101.

Crazy Conservatives Misinterpret Obama...Again

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 23:25:38 -0400

I have really been trying to stay away from Barack Obama stories. Why? Because I am really biased. You all know that Obama is my politi-crush. Or as mwz says "Barack Obama is your boyfriend!" But my silence must be broken.

The AP and the usual band of merry idiots at Fox are all up at arms about presidential hopeful Barack Obama's speech about hopelessness and "quiet riots" at Hampton's Ministers' conference this week.

Have these people been to the inner city lately? Hell have they been to any working class neighbor hood lately? Have they seen hard working folks working paycheck to paycheck, praying for a 60 hour week just so that they can pay the rising gas prices and put food (usually poor quality and over priced because supermarkets in the inner city are scarce and usually pretty nasty) on the table. Did they miss the uproar about 8 years ago when KMart finally opened a store in Detroit proper and it was soon discovered that the prices were up to 20% higher than at the stores in the suburbs because they had to pay for "extra security"? Have they forgotten that DWB (Driving While Black) ain't a joke in Crash but a reality? Have they ever gone to schools in the inner city and noticed that not only don't most of them have adequate numbers of books, but that the bathrooms lack the fucking basics like TOILET PAPER?!?

These folks would wonder why Obama would say that there is a "quiet riot" brewing. Good Lawd ya'll he ain't calling for the Black folk to take up arms and fight for what they want (though I might), he ain't setting fire to garbage cans and tipping over cars though I have had my days when that sounded real appealing, but what he is speaking is the fucking truth. The same truth that Kanye West spoke when he said GWB don't give a damn about Black people. Obama is just saying it more eloquently,

"...those riots didn't erupt over night; there had been a "quiet riot" building up in Los Angeles and across this country for years...Those "quiet riots" that take place every day are born from the same place as the fires and the destruction and the police decked out in riot gear and the deaths. They happen when a sense of disconnect settles in and hope dissipates. Despair takes hold and young people all across this country look at the way the world is and believe that things are never going to get any better. You tell yourself, my school will always be second rate. You tell yourself, there will never be a good job waiting for me to excel at. You tell yourself, I will never be able to afford a place that I can be proud of and call my home. That despair quietly simmers and makes it impossible to build strong communities and neighborhoods. And then one afternoon a jury says, "Not guilty" -- or a hurricane hits New Orleans -- and that despair is revealed for the world to see."

Let the church say "Amen"!

C&W 2007

Sun, 20 May 2007 00:18:51 -0400

We've been in Detroit since Thursday and I have seen some good sessions and some not so good sessions. But that's about par for the course, right? What I have been disappointed in is the attendance. There are a lot of folks who just didn't show even though they were accepted and some who never even thought about coming. I'm pretty sure that attendance is so low because it's in Detroit. Folks are afraid of Detroit. I don't know if they are afraid of the rumors or frightened by the thought of a true chocolate city. Afraid of being outnumbered the way us Black academic folk are at all of our professional meetings, in our departments, and many times in our own towns. To those folks I just say get over yourselves, your closed mindedness caused you to miss one of the greatest cities in the United States.

We are already hearing rumors of folks being "concerned" for their safety in New Orleans at Cs next year. To those folks I say again Get. The. Fuck. Over. It. Don't let your ignorance make you miss out on another of the great cities in the U.S. (ironically another chocolate city). NOLA (and Detroit) are no more dangerous that any large city in the U.S. They may be a little darker (and you know what I mean) than you are used to, but they are no more dangerous.

Ok, enough of my ranting. I'm going to bed. I'll put my notes up soon.

Edited to add: I just finished my last session so here are all of the notes that I took.

Madness

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 00:47:11 -0400

Luckily it seems that all of our colleagues in English are physically safe. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone in Blacksburg. We are going to ignore the madness of Fox News putting Jack Thompson on the air as a "school shooting expert" only to have him blame today's tragedy on video games. *sigh* God help us all.

The U.S. Army Goes After Gamers...Again

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 14:59:35 -0400

Non-gamers are usually shocked by the number of military recruitment ads found in video game magazines and on games websites. With the increasing popularity of online games mags and podcasts it would seem that recruitment ads in print mags would less effective.

The U.S. Army has signed a $2 million deal with the Global Gaming League website. GGL which runs competitive ladders for mostly military/strategy games seems to be the perfect venue for the Army, 18-24 year old males who are already interested in military strategy. The site brings in over 9 million gamers a month, 80% of whom are in the Army's target demographic. While most of the games that I see listed on the ladders are also games that are most appealing to my middle aged friends with the relaxing of age restrictions for enlistment in the last couple of years I suppose that works too.

Under this new deal the Army will open a new area of the site that hosts 15 new games and gives players a chance to participate in a monthly tournament for its game. According to Army marketing specialist, Rueben Hendell, gamers will be given the opportunity to "opt-in" for recruitment information during the registration process and only then will they be contacted by Arny recruiters. The Army sees this as an opportunity “to tell the Army story. It’s not all about combat. Being in the Army is about driving trucks, welding, nurses and computers. If we have an opportunity to tell the Army story, we may have better influence.” Maybe that's why there's no blood when you get shot in America's Army.

Discuss.

(via Serious Games Source)

soon to be cross posted over at j101

It's Been a Busy Week (or so) for Racists

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 22:04:28 -0400

First Don Imus started by calling the Rutgers girls "nappy headed hoes" and then folks all over the place jumped to his defense claiming freedom of speech and trying to divert attention by bringing up Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson's checkered pasts with racial slurs. Some idiots are even trying to blame rap music for Imus's comments. Yesterday NBC canceled Imus's show and today CBS fired his ass.

Now some idiot DJ in PA got fired because he made "nappy headed hoes" the phrase that pays and getting idiot callers to call in and repeat the phrase over and over again. Yes, of course he's sorry and claims that it was a stupid thing to do. Yeah, right. This has been a banner week for idiot DJs across the US.

What was most shocking about the whole thing is the fact that it took a day or so before anyone realized that "hoe" was also problematic. They got the racist thing, but not the sexist thing. When you put all of the words together it becomes more and more problematic. It's not racism and sexism independently, but it is racism wrapped up in sexism. It recalls images of enslaved Black women who are forced into lives of chattel and sexual slavery and finding the descendants for hundreds of years marked are "hoes". Oh shit, don't get me started!