So far I can only lodge two complaints:

• Scrolling is now required to add tags and assign categories

You can no longer rearrange the sections. Hopefully this feature will come back in future upgrades.

• A class attribute is specified when adding an image

Uploading is now spiffy and near seamless with an overlay:

But even selecting an alignment of ‘none’ inserts class="alignnone size-full wp-image-[#]".

Aside from these two minor complaints I’m enjoying the new WordPress. One wish I have for future versions is for the plugin page to be Ajaxed, so when I activate a plugin the entire page doesn’t have to reload. Check the WordPress Blog to read about all the changes.

Luckily, Rob of Roblog came up with a plugin to put it back.

Preview, I love you hard.

_____
* I currently have only three rough drafts in process, down from five. Go delete button!

I had heard about The Stepford Wives — had heard enough to at least get the cultural references whenever someone called Laura Bush a Stepford wife, but I never bothered with reading the book. I did see the 2004 movie version, which had an ending of the exact fucking opposite of the book.

The back of my copy reads

At once a masterpiece of psychological suspense and a savage commentary on a media-driven society that values the pursuit of youth and beauty at all costs, The Stepford Wives is a novel so frightening in its final implications that the title itself has earned a place in the American lexicon.

“Savage commentary on a media-driven society”, to me, speaks to a critical analysis of media culture, consumption, production, and marketing. While the book brand-name dropped a couple times, the only piece that I can loosely construe as being anywhere near ‘commentary’ on media is found on pages 42-3:

That’s what she was, Joanna felt suddenly. That’s what they all were, all the Stepford wives: actresses in commercials, pleased with detergents and floor wax, with cleansers, shampoos, and deodorants. Pretty actresses, big in the bosom but small in the talent, playing suburban housewives unconvincingly, too nicey-nice to be real. [emphasis in original]

What am I supposed to take away from this book? To never get married, and secondly, to never let a male partner join a “men’s association”, let alone watch commercials? Writing in 1972, perhaps I’m immune from whatever Levin was trying to get across to a woman audience at that time.

For all the cultural hype, I think it lacks full engagement.

Have you read it? What are your thoughts? Am I right to hate it as much as I did the movie?

A growing number of Evangelical Christians believe there is a revival underway in America that requires Christian youth to assume leadership roles in advocating the causes of their religious movement. Jesus Camp follows a group of young children to Pastor Becky Fischer’s “Kids on Fire Summer Camp”, where kids are taught to become dedicated Christian soldiers in God’s army and are schooled in how to take back America for Christ. The film is a first-ever look into an intense training ground that recruits born-again Christian children to become an active part of America’s political future.

Here’s the trailer: It is no longer available.

And a “get it while you can” heads-up, here is the entire film in several parts on YouTube:
It is no longer available, due to copyright issues.

This film should be viewed, especially by those of us outside the Evangelical cult community — or those of us without children with whom we can journey to the Kids on Fire Summer Camp to see this stuff first-hand. Give copies to your family, friends, and neighbors.

Generally, the first realm of socialization for an individual is the family. Thus the film begins by taking the viewer into the homes and lives of several Evangelical families, most of which home-school their children. While Evangelical home-schooling is something worthy of investigation itself, this portion of the film is especially frightening — even for us non-educators — due to the amount of brainwashing and misinformation being passed on to these children under the guise of education.

For example, Levi’s mother can be seen using Exploring Creation with Physical Science, a textbook which “begins with a detailed discussion of the world around you and what makes it work. It will then take you out into the universe so that you may learn the majesty of God’s Creation”, from which she reads:

“One popular thing to do in American politics is to note that the summers in the United States over the past few years have been very warm. As a result, global warming must be real. What’s wrong with this reasoning?”

Levi replies, “It’s only gone up 0.6 degrees.”

His mother, apparently a climatologist, says, “Yeah, it’s not really a big problem, is it?”

The beginning scenes are not the worst, however, as we follow the families to their week at the summer camp. To say that these children are shamed, guilted, and otherwise emotionally beaten into religious submission would be a nice way of putting what we see happening on the screen. I cannot believe this shit is legal.

Children, according to Pastor Becky Fischer,

are so usable in Christianity. If you look at the world’s population, one-third of that 6.7 billion people are children under the age of fifteen. One-third. Where should we be putting our efforts? Where should we be putting our focus? I’ll tell you where our enemies are putting it: they’re putting it on the kids. They’re going into the schools — you go into Palestine, and I can take you to some websites that will absolutely shake you to your foundations, and show you photographs, of where they’re taking their kids to camps like we take our kids to bible camps, and they’re putting hand grenades in their hands, and they’re teaching them how to put on bomb belts, they’re teaching them how to use rifles, they’re teaching them how to use machine guns — it’s no wonder, with that kind of intense training and discipling, that those young people are ready to kill themselves for the cause of Islam. I wanna see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam. I wanna see them as radically laying down their lives for the gospel, as they are over in Pakistan, in Israel, and Palestine, and all those different places. You know, because we have — excuse me! — but we have the truth!

I think it’s time for a nation-wide intervention.

Your thoughts?

The following is an exchange between Vera and a detective.

Detective – So, how do you help them out?
Vera Drake – I help them start their bleeding again.
Detective – You help them to get rid of the baby? You perform an abortion. Is that right, Mrs. Drake? You perform abortions, don’t you?
Vera Drake – That’s not what I do, dear. That’s what you call it, but they need help. Who else they gonna turn to? They’ve got no one. I help them out.

Saying that I found this film emotionally moving would make it seem trite. My county library has three copies alone; I highly recommend giving it a view.

In the early mornings I have political sociology, which is a really interesting class for me as far as the reading content goes. G. William Domhoff‘s Who Rules America? Power, Politics, & Social Change is a text I would recommend to everyone currently living in the US. His thesis (roughly: Who rules America? The elites. How? Through an intricate web of economic, buisness, and social connections. What about the masses? Useless, unless they band together in large social movements.) relies upon social network analysis, and according to my professor, this style of critical examination of class and power was a new thing when Domhoff first published this text back in 1967.

We’ve thus far had one guest professor speak to our class regarding his own three-decades long research into local power. Greater Lafayette is ruled by the elites just like Chicago.

It’s a small class, which would prove much in the way of discussion. The professor, however, doesn’t engage us in discussion. He lectures at us using the overhead projector and his brain. Sometimes he’ll ask a question and I’ll think, “Oh, now we get to start discussion”, but then he’ll quickly answer it himself. Occassionally, he asks the class for examples of this or that topic but continues his lecture. At least the texts are engaging.

Philosophy/religions of the east is a huge lecture class. Professor lectures using overhead slides and we copy down what he says. Every class, though, he’ll ask if there are any questions, and the good students that sit in the few front rows ask questions about belief because, as primarily Christians, they just don’t understand how anybody can believe in more than one god and still go to heaven. The “text” we’re currently reading sucks and is boring as hell, something the professor addressed during the first class but said he didn’t have time to find a replacement. Up next I have to read through The Bhagavad Gita: Krishna’s Counsel in Time of War, which really has nothing to do with war per se (translator’s error), but is a tale about patriarchy and being a man, about living life according to how [your] society is set up and that you’ve just got to get used to it because HEY! that’s life and life kinda sucks sometimes. Suck it up, Arjuna! I do think it is much better than the Christian tale, though.

The psychology of women class is a real bummer. It’s a large class and the professor gives us her PowerPoint presentation ahead of time so instead of sitting in class writing a whole bunch, we sit in class and are bored to death. I haven’t decided which I needn’t bother with: reading the textbook or going to lecture.

The kicker is the social psychology class. The professor goes on and on, giving tons of examples for relatively easy to understand concepts. He’s even showed clips from studies that I’ve been watching since introductory psychology.

The thing that I’m having a hard time with is that the professor will be talking about, say, role behaviors, and he’ll say something along the lines of, “Now, The Feminists™ have their own take on this issue, but what I’m going to show disproves The Feminists™.” or “The Feminists™ have written about this, but what I’m about to tell you shows how wrong The Feminists™ are.”

Every single class.

The Feminists™.

He even says it like it’s a bad thing.

He never once tells us exactly what The Feminists™ have as theory. He just says there generally is a The Feminists™ theory and goes on. No specifics whatsoever.

Tomorrow, when he brings up The Feminists™, I’m going to raise my hand and ask, “What, exactly, do The Feminists™ say on this topic, because it’s not in our textbook [which is written by a man and doesn't mention the feminist perspective] and you haven’t clarified what their position is at all.”

Fair is fair and I call sexism.

I do a lot of research via the computer and Internet, however, and need a program capable of organizing web-clippings, notes, rough drafts of essays/papers, important terms, bibliographies, etc.

So far, the only program I’m really pleased with is Circus Ponies’ NoteBook. It’s a tabbed-based organizational application that has a lot of fantastic features that get the job done (the only draw-back for me is that I’m a dual-platform bitch and NoteBook isn’t exportable to anything Windows can read). There’s a free 30-day trial, which I’ve used, and for students it only costs $30. But $30 is $30 and I’ve already spent $30 on the OneNote (The Partner gets a discount) for my desktop PC. I’m cheap, what can I say?

I’ve also just downloaded VoodooPad, but haven’t gotten a chance to really mess around with it. Unless I register it (i.e. pay for it), I’m limited to the number of pages.

The Partner just recommended looking into stand-alone wiki options, so I’ll shove off to do that.

The main reason for this post was:

I came across Stu.dicio.us, which I’d never heard of before:

Studicious is a service created for students, by students.

Our goal is to break down as many barriers as possible towards what should be the objective of all educational institutions: the free flow of information.

It’s an open community note-sharing space for all levels of education. Don’t you just love the Internet?

We don’t have a reading packet for Seminar, just (ha! JUST!) the completion of our research, the analysis of our data, the write-up of our thesis, and the presentation of our findings.

The remaining four classes? I sit in a desk and get lectured at. I am graded only on three exams per class, three classes featuring — get ready for it — multiple-choice questions! Yes! Way to test my comprehension! The political sociology course exams consist of three essay questions, which may prove to actually assess my knowledge and application abilities of the theories.

Oh, there’s also a 2-page, double-spaced “movie analysis” in the psychology of women class, but I don’t count that as a Real Paper because two pages double-spaced is not a paper, it’s a journal entry – an exercise, at best, of seeing how much bullshit I can pull from my ass and smear onto paper in a swirly mock-coherent fashion. The three movies we’ll be watching at various points throughout the semester, from which I can chose one:

• Myths That Maim
• The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (this will be the THIRD time I’ve watched this movie for a women’s studies course)
• Slim Hopes

The first day of class this instructor warned us, “What you get from the textbook will only cover about 60% of the material tested on the exam, the remaining 40% will come from my lectures. You cannot pass the exams with only reading the textbook, so I strongly urge regular class attendance.”

Thursday’s lecture proved the reality of the situation is that 99% will come from the textbook and the remaining 1% will come from the instructor’s lectures. Just like the sociology of marriage class last semester, this instructor takes her lectures straight from the book, and even utilizes the Guaranteed to Put You to Sleep™ PowerPoint Presentations.

I should not bitch too much: I could be swamped with homework assignments beyond readings and lengthy papers to write. Then again, the sort of engagement I’m looking for does not involve doing problem sets out of the book or writing to an audience of one.

1. Coastal – Half Way To You
2. Freezepop – Lazy
3. The Silent League – Breathe
4. Jonah Matranga – A New England
5. Cat Power – Willie
6. Charles Kamm – Dorsia
7. n.Lannon – Hollow Heart
8. The Owls – Air
9. max Min – Lie
10. Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start – By Surprise

BONUS: Background Friday Random Ten-And-Counting:

• AppleCare Battery Recall Phone Support – All Representatives Are Still Busy. Please Continue To Hold For The Next Available Representative

You’d think that with iTunes at their disposal, I’d get better shit than the Eagles’ “The Boys of Summer”.

I’ve found an FTP program I like, Cyberduck, and tonight I installed two of the most kickass open source software I’ve yet to download: Fink and the GIMP. The Partner is to thank for Fink, as he told me to download it because I would need it and “it’s cool, just trust me.” It’s been sitting on the desktop for a couple weeks and I got around to installing it tonight. With Fink, I can easily install tons of Unix open source software, all through the command line. I’m still freaky about using a command line (not to mention the geek factor involved), even though my very first “laptop” was a (http://cgi.ebay.com/1992-Vtech-Precomputer-2000-laptop-4-Educ-carts-MINT_W0QQitemZ6058329339QQcategoryZ2518QQcmdZViewItem)* Pre-Computer 2000 that allowed me to learn some BASIC. I’ll take my time with Fink, but the GIMP wins second place in my download hall of fame.

For me, the GIMP was like discovering OpenOffice, in a “you mean this shit is for free?” sort of manner. Whereas the OpenOffice suite is comparable to MS Office, so is GIMP to Photoshop. But OpenOffice and GIMP are infinitely better because they are free, open source, just as (if not more) powerful, more user-friendly, and did I mention free? They’re also available for Windows.

I warned you my inner geek would show.

* EDITED 07-24-08: PreComputer2000 link expired.

It’s crunch time, with 1 1/2 weeks left of the semester before finals.

My schedule, should I chose to follow it:

• Tuesday 18th: Marriage report (4-7 pages) and journals (>10 pages) due DONE!
• Wednesday 19th: Spanish listening quiz and composition corrections due DONE!
• Friday 21st: Soc Methods critical analysis due (>8 pages) [have classmate turn it in]; attend the all-day (http://www.purdue.edu/climate/ucwcci/) 1st Annual Undergraduate Conference on Weather and Climate Change DONE!
• Monday 24th: Seminar Presentation (10-15 minutes) and Proposal (>5 pages) due DONE! DONE!
• Wednesday 26th: Spanish portfolio (listening and writing exercises) due DONE!
• Monday May 1st: Soc Methods Final Exam
• Tuesday May 2nd: Marriage Final Exam
• Thursday May 4th: Spanish Final Exam

The 26th of this month is when I expect my brain to give up and shut down, just in time for final exams.

I finished the Marriage journals last Thursday and have a rough outline of the paper. I’ll be analysing the film, The Story of Us, for its portrayal of marriage and the family. I chose this movie because it is explicitly about marriage and family life, and the stereotypes and normalcy expressed within it just beg to be written about.

Spanish I’m not concerned about.

The Methods report should go smoothly. I’ll be able to START it this Wednesday. It’s a group project, so my partner and I decided to split the workload in half and work on each part independently, then we will come together Thurday evening to make the paper some-what coherent. We’re not too worried about this one, as the professor grades easily and we both have high grades currently. Actually, a group of us in class figured out the grades, and even if we didn’t do the bulk of the paper, say, turned in only our proposal/introduction paper (which we submitted earlier in the semester), we would still get a C on the paper.

The Seminar proposal should be okay, but I’m still stressing over it. And I need to make a short PowerPoint presentation to help my fellow classmates and professor get the general idea and understand my research goals. I asked my classmates today how far they have gotten on their proposals: one gal has one paragraph, another gal has written two pages and can’t think of anything else to include, the rest haven’t started yet. I AM NOT ALONE! Rock!

This is all to say that I’m going freakin’ nuts over here and I should resurface occasionally.

EDITED 07-24-08: Climate Change site link expired.