Through Pen and Lens

When I see a woman holding a sign with the feminist slogan, “My Body, My Choice,” I think, damn straight; you claim it! No one should tell you what to do with your body. You have to live with whatever decisions you make with regard to your own person. But lately, I have seen images of this slogan bastardized by women who choose to not wear a face mask, and I thank the goddess that I am not face-to-face with these women on the one hand and wish that I could have a serious discussion with them on the other. I chose this image so as not to vilify any one person. I will also not include the company selling this t-shirt design for the same reason. Women! How dare you take that which has been so hard won, still being fought for , and misrepresent its meaning! “My body, my choice” (again) refers to having a choice about what happens to the Self . The use of a face mask is about what happens to the Other . And therein lies the real problem – the want to not wear a face mask. Its bene...

Folks quickly assign blame for anything and everything. He/she/they did/didn’t do something that caused this/that to happen to me; it was bad juju, or the gods were angry. Rarely is something one’s own fault or simply Life. I’ve listened to reporters ask Abbott why Turner and Emmett didn’t call for mandatory evacuations, and although Abbott deflected the questions, making it apparent that at that time, he was not placing blame, he also didn’t actually address the issue. So, I shall. If city/county officials call for mandatory evacuations, all hell breaks loose on our roadways, lest we forget . Folks that aren’t even near the mandatory areas decide to get on the road – not a good idea. It’s one thing to evacuate from the threat of a direct hit from a hurricane, something else entirely for being on the dirty side of one. And we are expected to evacuate because of rain? Answer me this: Who the hell is going to pay for that? You and me – twice! The cost of the actual evacuation...

This post was to start quite differently. I was updating the blog, making pages to separate topics, trying to appear more organized than I have been in decades, intending to post about the updates I was making to the blog and why. My change in focus came about as I began reading posts to decide upon which page to put each. I thought starting with the oldest posts would be best. Thinking is highly overrated. The first post in this blog (the first retained, as I deleted quite a few when I started fresh in 2010), “First Day of Class” has an image of my father, and I write that I have to call him to ask him about – oh, it doesn’t matter. It’s dumb. Birthday Celebration 20 July 2011 And I’m stopped in my organizational plan because as of 12 April 2016, I can no longer call to ask Daddy dumb shit. Ask him if a medical examiner can legally stop an investigation into a death by inscribing on a sheet of paper, “Cause of Death: Undetermined.” I am stupefied. I won’t go in...

I sat and wondered all the time when I was younger, even in my late twenties. By my thirties, there was too much on my plate. But I’ve recently returned to the practice, especially now that I am heavily medicated.  Oh, update: I had a partial knee replacement last week, and although this hurts as bad as the original injury in ’94 (Oh my lord, almost thirty years ago! Time flies when you’re busy avoiding life.), I think the drugs must be better this time around because I am functioning mentally, when I’m not sleeping, anyway. I’m even sitting here, returning to this blog.  Yeah, it’s been a while since the last entry, but busy or just otherwise occupied has been my life for the last several months (strike that) years. And if I was sitting during that time, I was (in no particular order) a) eating; b) grading; c) watching shows on the DVR – I have come to despise regular TV; d) driving; e) sleeping; f) avoiding reading. So, now I am forced to sit. I’ve been doi...

The first time I saw the Chick-fil-A cows, I was in Houston on I-10 headed west on my way to the 45 South exit. I had just driven under 59, and as I rounded the curve with UH-Downtown to my left, to my right I saw a billboard with two cows, one on the other’s shoulders (Do cows have shoulders?), painting the sign, EAT MOR CHIKIN! Apparently, cows can’t spell. Thanks for joining the dyslexic giraffe in the education of America’s children. Did I mention that I was in morning rush-hour traffic? That billboard is what prompted my first visit to Chick-fil-A. It wasn’t that I didn’t know the chain existed or anything; they’re in the mall, but I had never ventured into one of the stores to sample the fare. It took two life-like cow statues painting graffiti on a billboard and a near miss on the freeway to hook me. Why do they call it a near miss, by the way? If it’s a near miss, doesn’t that mean it actually happened? Maybe bare-miss would be a better term. Think about it. But I digress. ...

Okay, who knows what I am referencing? Never mind. It's not important that you recognize it. Intertextuality is my game and is not for everyone. So, on with the show... We all have at least one a semester – the student that we want to just wring his/her little neck because he/she just can’t seem to get it. Oh, that I could video myself delivering that line so that you could come to grips with my frustration. They make us work even harder because we think perhaps he/she isn't the only one not understanding what we are trying to impart. Maybe we didn’t explain thoroughly. Maybe we should have given more examples, perhaps even, have done the assignment for them. After all, we already know what we mean/want. Yeah. I’ve about lost it, so good luck understanding what I mean, right now. Sometimes, I wish there was a direct portal through which to channel information, one that had no filters on either end, just pure information.  Never mind. We’d have heads exploding all ov...

Well, this morning, I've been whetting my skills, whittling away at the ins-and-outs of WordPress. I'm sure that if I didn't have fifty other things waiting to be done before tomorrow, I would spend the entire day whipping the pages into shape and learning how to load images that won't be misappropriated. There is supposed to be some widget for that. Weird. I thought Widget was a wacky wee Ewok. Not to be confused with a wombat. Wrong. That was Wicket.

I'm working on the last paper for the semester. Working title: An Historical (hysterical, maybe?) View from I-45. I have the introduction and the last line of the paper, which I think is quite clever, actually. That, or I need to go to bed. Probably a bit of both. Anywho... I was off to bs my professor into thinking that I have a working brain cell left, but as usual, I am walking around this tiny apartment looking at all of the other projects I want to get done before my summer of French immersion begins. I know. Get back to work. One day I will learn from my past (I should come up with some really ingenious word here, but brain death has set in) whatever, but until then, I will probably continue to wait until the last possible moment to a finish paper. I think I need an intervention. Quote for the day: The remaining work to finish in order to reach your goal increases as the deadline approaches. Unknown

Can someone please explain to me why it is that everything (and I use that word loosely) is due or needs to be done at the same time? I can! I can! You, my friend are a major procrastinator. You thrive on the pressure of the deadline. You are (or think you are) more creative and productive when the clock is on its final countdown. Yep. That’s me. Take this morning, for instance. I have a project and report due today. Nowhere near finished. I have a project due Wednesday. Barely started. I have a project report due Thursday. Well, at least the project is done. I have final exams to grade. Plenty of time because none of my students have started the exam. They, like me, appear to be procrastinating. But the big one – full-time teaching J O B application due today. Thought I’d pull my hair out trying to put all of my transcripts into one pdf that was small enough to load on the site. Just loaded the application and that pesky pdf with hours to spare! So, hey. Not too shabby. ...

Minister in 'racist circumcision outrage' - The Local When I first went to the link above, I wasn’t immediately offended. My question was: what prompted the cutting of the cake of “the cutting of the cake”? (I’ll wait.) Then, I began reading more of the article and became offended, not at Liljeroth but at the artist, Makode Aj Linde. How dare HE take on the role of a woman being circumcised, in Black-face, no less? Who the hell does he think he is? I fell for it. Damnit! I can’t believe I actually went that route. (Heavy sigh.) But if you can find his Facebook page, you will see that I wasn’t the only one. I checked out the comments regarding this work and found some very mixed responses, but most were negatively directed at Linde and/or Liljeroth. But then, art should cause controversy or make you think, right? And at the very least, it should make you think about it after you have walked away from it. So, I sat back down at my computer with a glass of ...

I must say, I have been remiss in considering my life after graduate school. I mean, I've had lofty ideas of starting an artist's/writer's residency program/commune at The West Mansion in Clear Lake or somewhere with lots of land and a river that runs through it. (Sorry, I couldn't resist that one.) That, or teaching, which I'm doing already, so why go back to get a PhD? Or becoming rich and famous with my art and writing, both of which I have no real time to work on because I'm working on a PhD. One step forward and all that. The article linked below was shared with me today. Oh, that Karen Kelsky had been my advisor years ago. At least now, I'm working on a plan. Enjoy. Graduate School Is a Means to a Job by Karen Kelsky Quote for the day: Just be ordinary and nothing special.  Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water, and when you're tired, go and lie down.  The ignorant will laugh at me, but the wise will understand. Bruce Lee

NAACP addresses variety of issues at Southeast Region Convention - News14.com I just love how folks take things out of context for their own agenda! What the 15th Amendment actually states is: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. All of the people standing in the front row of the image, including Barber, are holding flyers that read THIS IS MY VOTE, which is the NAACP's campaign slogan to get voters to the polls. And damnitalltohell , it is your vote and my vote! But who the hell are you? I know who I am (most of the time). But I don't know you, and you don't know me. When was the last time you went to the polls to vote and knew everyone working at the polls? Hell. When was the last time you lived on a street and knew everyone on that street? How about just the block of the street that you lived on? How does requ...