PlanetUSF

I recently spent an unprecedented 5 days offline. And I liked it. In fact, since my return to the web, I’ve only forced myself to log on so to read my online students’ drafts and check email. I find I can focus on my dissertation much better this way, even though those days off produced more editing than new pages… but I will say that those few days back in the Big Easy reminded me how important my research is. “Katrina” or “the storm” is literally uttered every minute and you know we’re all still in a process of healing or dealing with something related to the levee breaches, even on our good days.

My trip last weekend was mainly to see family and friends [and the dentist–look ma, no cavities!] but also included a stop at the Alternative Media Expo where I got to act “researchy” when I saw some of my fellow NOLA bloggers, Leigh and Loki. That event was very cool and again reminded me of how unique our city and blogging community really is–we all want to spread the word our way and when we get together it’s always a party!

I am going back to NOLA in April for the national Conference on College Composition and Communication, although I wish I could stay an extra few days to be at the 10th anniversary of V-Day and its Superlove event in the Superdome. Go here for more info.

My USF-sanctioned quintet, Ten Over Two, had our only USF-sanctioned concert last night at FAH 101, the recital hall. I have to say it was one of the most gratifying concerts I’ve ever done. It wasn’t without issues, but the turnout and results were quite gratifying.

Ten Over Two

John Rodriguez|tenor saxophone
Ed Reid|trumpet
Daniel Joiner|piano
Paul Keesling|drums
Matthew Wengerd|double bass

There is audio evidence.
Doctone|Branford Marsalis
Moon Palace|Dave Morgan, arr. Wengerd
Deluge|Wayne Shorter
Rockit|Herbie Hancock, arr. Van Voorst
Blues for Sarka|George Mraz, trans. Wengerd
Bags’ Groove|Milt Jackson

Forgive the intonation, please.

My USF-sanctioned quintet, Ten Over Two, had our only USF-sanctioned concert last night at FAH 101, the recital hall. I have to say it was one of the most gratifying concerts I’ve ever done. It wasn’t without issues, but the turnout and results were quite gratifying.

Ten Over Two

John Rodriguez|tenor saxophone
Ed Reid|trumpet
Daniel Joiner|piano
Paul Keesling|drums
Matthew Wengerd|double bass

There is audio evidence.
Doctone|Branford Marsalis
Moon Palace|Dave Morgan, arr. Wengerd
Deluge|Wayne Shorter
Rockit|Herbie Hancock, arr. Van Voorst
Blues for Sarka|George Mraz, trans. Wengerd
Bags’ Groove|Milt Jackson

Forgive the intonation, please.

My USF-sanctioned quintet, Ten Over Two, had our only USF-sanctioned concert last night at FAH 101, the recital hall. I have to say it was one of the most gratifying concerts I’ve ever done. It wasn’t without issues, but the turnout and results were quite gratifying.

Ten Over Two

John Rodriguez|tenor saxophone
Ed Reid|trumpet
Daniel Joiner|piano
Paul Keesling|drums
Matthew Wengerd|double bass

There is audio evidence.
Doctone|Branford Marsalis
Moon Palace|Dave Morgan, arr. Wengerd
Deluge|Wayne Shorter
Rockit|Herbie Hancock, arr. Van Voorst
Blues for Sarka|George Mraz, trans. Wengerd
Bags’ Groove|Milt Jackson

Forgive the intonation, please.

This is the first time I create a post in a blog of my own. I don’t know wxactly what to put but I will know eventually. In the meanwhile, just read this!

This is a test post for my USF Blog.

First BLOG Comment. Wiki opened during Wiki and Blog seminar on Feb 28, 2008.

If you take a look at the southwest section of the building - that’s the part facing MLK Plaza between the Theater building and the MC, you can see a lot of work going on. Big sections of glass have all been installed, the stucco is nearly finished and the bricks have been added. This will give you a good idea on what the building will look like when it’s done. You should check it out when you get a chance.

Euthanasia, is it murder or is it a painless death? Many people say its murder. However, I think it depends on the situation. There are many critics that think this procedure is completely against the law and suicide. And other people think the opposite, they think if the people are desiring to end their life they should be able to. Then the third side of this argument people see their family members in so much pain that they would rather not see them go through with it and pass away with less pain. This could be very hard decision that a person must go through to make this decision; if the family members have to make this decision then it must be even harder. What about the doctors allowing this procedure to happen how would it affect there life? This is a very controversial topic that has me wonder what is right and what should happen. Before the time of modern medicine, humans would have to try to get through an illness, disease or virus in hopes of staying alive. Most of the time people died well before they were old enough to get cancer, or any other life threatening ailment. Nowadays, people are living so much longer that we are have a higher chance of getting a illness that can stop life. To conclude, today’s society doesn’t promote a healthy life-style because of television, internet and video games. These aspects of society keep our youth inside opposed to exercising outside.

If anyone doesn’t know about Moes Southwestern grill, then you need to. Moes is kind of like a boston market, but with a southwestern twist. They have many good things to eat there, but to me, the best thing is the homewrecker. it is a burrito, but very good. they have different things you can put on it too. they give you the choice of black beans or pinto beans. then you get rice, and you can choose between steak and chicken. and then you get a whole bunch of choices: lettuce, salsa, sour cream, guacamole and other stuff. There is also sauces you can put on top of that. The perfect homewrecker for me is: Rice, black beans, steak, lettuce, salsa, sour cream and chipotle ranch, or queso. There are three Moe’s that I know about around this area, well four. One is over by Indian shores beach, then there is one on dale mabry by publix, and another one on bruce b downs by the movie theater, and the last one is on SR54 in the same complex as the publix. The burritos I have at Moe’s are the best burritos I have ever had. Oh yea they also give you some amazing chips and salsa, and the chips are refillable, so you can get as much as you want before you leave. The best part is on Mondays, they have a special called Moe’s Monday, which you get any burrito, chips and a drink for $5.55. this is a good deal if you compare it to how much it normally costs, which is well over 8 dollars for everything they give. So go to Moe’S!!

I am away at a conference this week.

I will be leaving Monday February 25th at 2:00 PM and will be back Monday, March 3rd at 9:00 AM. I will have email access (clw@lakeland.usf.edu), though not all the time.

If you need immediate assistance from a librarian, you can contact the USF Tampa’s Ask-A-Librarian services at (813) 974-2729 or (866) 550-8036 (toll free).

Have a pleasant week!

After an extensive evaluation headed by Student Government, the University of South Florida and Google have entered a partnership to bring Google Apps to all USF students. Google Apps is an exciting new system that will provide us with email, as well as a suite of other Google products that will enable USF students to better communicate, share, and collaborate.

To sign up, visit http://mail.usf.edu

Don’t worry, your email address won’t change, and you won’t lose your old messages! The nice thing about Google Apps is that everyone will be able to keep the same email address and we’ll migrate the mail from your existing email account to Google Apps. This means that you can search and access all mail in one central location.

Here are some of the other key benefits:

• 6 Gigabytes of email storage — No more worries about having to delete mail.
• Instant messaging & voice calls — Connect instantly with others when you have a question.
• Google Calendar — Schedule meetings, book rooms, create events, and share calendars with others.
• Docs and Spreadsheets — Create and collaborate in real-time with others at your location, and across the globe.
• Start Page — Start off the day on the right foot by adding your favorite gadgets to your personalized start page.
• Access your information anywhere, anytime — All content is available online. You can also access your email with a mobile device .
• Reliability — Google Apps products are built with speed and reliability in mind.

You can use these URLs to access the service once you’ve registered:

• Mail - http://mail.mail.usf.edu
• Calendar - http://calendar.mail.usf.edu
• Docs - http://docs.mail.usf.edu
• Start Page - http://start.mail.usf.edu

Here I am, two weeks before spring break and I am stressing my brains out. It is not just one thing that it stressing me out, it is a combonation of everything that is going on. I know I wrote about stress a few blogs ago, but it made me feel better to get it out by writing it down, eventhough only a handful of you are going to read this. I have to do so much by Friday it is not even funny. I’ve got to write my paper for this class, work enough to get ready for my trip, and get a haircut, and go get some more dress clothes, all in the next 12 hours! Then tomorrow I have one of my exams for my Origins class, which I have not done any studying for, as well as writing another paper for another class! Ahhhh! Why do we have mid-term exams anyways? They just stress everyone out before spring break. What are they supposed to do, make us ekjoy spring break more? I do not think so! However, What I just mentioned, I have to have done in two days, well more like 36 hours. That is only through Wednesday, we wont even go into Thursday and Friday! Saturday I leave for Boston, and I do not think I should be stressing out over stupid stuff the week before my trip (and my Birthday)!!! This is going to be one heck of a week.

The next project is soon approaching and I am still unsure what I am going to do. I keep putting it off because of everything else that is going on with school and work. I am pretty sure I am going to do some type of film, although I am unsure as to which film I want to choose. I was thinking about doing either Black Hawk Down, which is a war or military issue or possibly Catch Me if You Can which is a crime issue. I really like both of the movies, so I am unsure which to write about. I am leaning towards Catch Me if You Can though. If I end up just writing about a topic, I thought about same-sex marriages. I have always had a strong standpoint on this issue, so it should be easy to write about for me. So here I am, three topics to choose from and I do not know what I am writing about. Each one of these topics intrigues me in a different way. Talk about procrastination, cause this is due tomorrow and hopefully I will know what I want to write about by then. In all seriousness though, I really need to stop doing this, it is way too stressful. Way to go Chad.

ok so midterms are the devil incarnate. I know that I’m luckier than some, but i have two exams, 2 mid term papers and now and ethics paper.. fun fun! I think midterms are extremely unfair. Whats the point? I think they were made with one thought in mind- to torture students before finals. It’s to make sure that we all stress ourselves to death before we are able to go and have fun on spring break. It’s like a right of passage i guess.
Spring break is another school wonder, to be given a lovely whole week off for fun and mayhem i cannot wait!!! This year some friends and I have rented campsites on the beach for two night. IT’s going to be amazing, the place is really pretty and the campsite is literally on the beach. so were gonna be partying it up like Jimmy Buffet style… Fins to the left, Fins to the right….

im not really sure what i want to write about for my ethics paper. I was thinking about writing about the ethics of female dancers in hip hop videos. They are degrated and treated like meaningless objects that rappers can pass around and discard whenever deemed necessary. They are paid little money to dance and show their bodies off to such an extreme that children cant even watch, a lot of music videos they keep having to censor things. Women in those videos after performing are then treated like meat. In real life they do whatever the men want in order to get things paid for. Some girls even make it their mission to get pregnant by one of the guys so that he’ll take care of her. The second thing i thought about writing about was ethics in the movie “mona lisa Smile.” Roberts and stiles play very opposite roles. Set in the 1950’s Roberts plays a loving teacher that tries to teach women at her school that they don’t need a man to be happy, that they themselves can be successful in life. Stiles in a smart young student that gets accepted into Yale but turns down her dreams in order to become a man’s wife and have a family. The question in this movie is whether or not a married women with a family can feel the accomplishment that a female CEO would feel.

If you’re not familiar with the man I’ll fill you in. He’s the terrible, German born, movie director who has ruined many a good name of popular video game franchises. He’s responsible for one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen: Alone in the Dark. What makes the hurt even worse is that I really enjoyed the five videogames in that series and the new one coming up looks incredible. He’s also responsible for ruining the names of the following franchises: BloodRayne, Dungeon Siege, Postal, House of the Dead, and FarCry. Like me you may be wondering who keeps giving this man fistfuls of cash to make such terrible movies. The answer was, at one point, the German government. Apparently there was some tax loophole where the foreign government would give money to struggling German entrepreneurs in America. So even if one of Boll’s movies failed miserably (which all of them did) he would still rank in the dough. Boll would intentionally make his movies as low-budget as he could so he could keep more of the money. Luckily the loophole was recently closed and now the director will actually feel the punch that he gets from his terrible work. If his professional life isn’t despicable enough it turns out he’s a terrible person as well. When Uwe Boll got tired of all the deserving terrible reviews his films were getting he issued a physical challenge to any reviewer to box him in three rounds. Too bad Uwe Boll handpicked the weakest challengers he knew he could beat up one after another. In the end, I hate Uwe Boll for all those reasons.

Has anyone else noticed the rising gas prices over the last few days? Although this tends to happen during holiday times, the price per barrel of crude oil has shot up over $100. Why is this you might ask? Well with all of our worries about green house gases and the availability of oil in the near future on our minds, many people are worried there may not be enough so they are buying it up now. This is not the only reason, come to find out, and the oil companies are not producing a full capacity or even near it which of course drives up the price considerably. My question to you as a citizen of the U.S. is why has our president not done anything to counter act these things from foreign oil companies? We have our own sources of oil why are we not using those? We need to show those foreign oil companies that we don’t need them or their oil. If we stopped buying from them for a month or two that would put a huge hit into their income, then they would be willing to bargain with us to buy oil from them. I don’t know how or what but these unnecessarily high fuel prices need to come down, it is really taking a hit on people with budgets just a year ago gas was around $2.00 a gallon. Something needs to be done and it needs to have been done yesterday. (words: 248)

I was thinking that I would write my essay on the ethical dilemma of downloading movies off the internet. I would argue the two points, giving pros and cons for each side, but I would more strongly advocate the action than condemn it. For the pros I would write about how terrible of a state the film industry is in. It seems that all Hollywood is willing to pump out today are terrible cliché comedies or mindless CGI action movies. I think film studios need to come up with original ideas before I’ll just hand them my money. Just look at how many comics and videogames are being churned out into terrible films. If a studio can make some quick cash because of a loyal following to an original concept they won’t care how bad they desecrate the material. Some argue that downloading movies is stealing money from all the various people who put effort into the movie (aka the film crew, editing, musical score). My view point is that maybe if the film studios weren’t paying terrible actors 50 million dollars for a few months work, they could spread that money evenly throughout the crew. In essence I’d be arguing that downloading movies is the only way to get the fat cats in Hollywood to change their money grubbing ways. If I was going to argue against the act I would most likely talk about the morals of stealing. I would also talk about the copyright laws and the RIAA. No matter what justification you attach to a criminal act it doesn’t make it anymore lawful. I’m not positive if this is what I’m going to write about but it seems like a good topic.

Not even before DVD completely wiped out it’s meager competition of VHS there was already another format war being brought to the forefront. The two new contenders were (Sony backed) Blu-Ray in one corner and (Toshiba backed) HD-DVD in the other. These were two completely different formats although they didn’t differentiate much in appearance. The movies that would come out on each format would not be interchangeable so consumers would have to commit to one of the two formats. The greatest pro in regards to Blu-Ray was how much more information it could hold on one disc compared to HD-DVD. The biggest pro for HD-DVD was that it was much cheaper to manufacture so it would be cheaper for the consumer as well. Sony had the smart sense to use it’s foothold in the video game industry to install a base market for Blu-Ray. When the Playstation 3 was released it came standard with Blu-Ray capability. At that same time Blu-Ray players were going for over $1000. With millions of Playstation 3 consoles sold over the first few months, Blu-Ray was already in more living rooms then HD-DVD which came out first. Microsoft (Sony’s competition when it comes to video games) placed their bets on the opposing format offering a HD-DVD player attachment for the Xbox 360. Over time the scales have tipped in Blu-Ray’s favor and Toshiba has officially announced it will bail out on it’s high definition format. Blu-Ray will be the next media format but it will be quite a few years before it replaces the original DVD.

Ok for our next project I wanted to take on a topic that has become very hot lately with all of the rising fuel costs, so I am going to choose alternative fuels. I am not a tree hugger or anything crazy like that but the prices of oil right now are unreasonably high and I don’t believe that it should be. Oil companies are making so much money off of gasoline and diesel fuel more so than anything. How can a fuel that is a byproduct of the process of making gasoline cost so much more than gas itself. Back in the 1800’s and early 1900’s when we just started using automobiles oil companies that produced gasoline had this waste product, diesel fuel, that they didn’t know what to do with. Their solution was to give it away to the railroad companies to burn in their engines just to get rid of it. Now when you are at the gas station and you see that the price for the crudest fuel it more than the most refined. To me that is price gouging to the extreme. Diesel fuel should cost no more than 87 octane gas. In fact it should be much cheaper, but those who are selling it think, oh well truckers need this stuff so we will jack up the prices to make a lot of money off of them. (words: 234)