Ghost Town

Holy crap, I wish we weren't on a moving budget. This makes me want to go spend tons of money at JCPenney. Originally shared by Alan Traylor Love it. http://gawker.com/5914527/jcpenney-responds-to-homophobic-boycott-calls-with-gay-fathers-day-ad

#21: Plussers less prone to clogging stream by bragging about children than the nonplussed. http://mashable.com/2012/05/31/google-plus-reasons-to-switch/

I would like to offer a very sincere thanks to one of my co-workers for making me very, very happy that I am moving on to a different city, state, and life. #howtoreframenegativebehaviorbyobnoxiouspeople

Last weekend, we took some kids down to Austin to compete in the UIL state academic meet. On the way back, we stopped for a break at a convenience store and noticed these odd images on the restroom doors. Not only are these images really strange , but they are nearly identical. Apparently these restrooms are only for androgynous mono-pods.

The goodbye gift I was given today by some of my students and colleagues. Perfect. #teachingthebabygeeks

Found this while going through old papers and decluttering. It brings to mind several questions, including: When did I get this fortune? Why did I save this? And, most significantly, why did I take this crap from a stupid fortune cookie?

For the couple of years that I've been avoiding Waiting for Superman , I thought I was avoiding a serious critique hating on public schools. And maybe that's what Davis Guggenheim intended, but instead he produced what looked more like a slapstyicky parody of the idealess, rudderless "school reform" movement. Geoffrey Canada and Michelle Rhee come off as drooling morons in the hands of a ham-handed director of comedies about fart jokes. Wow. We were afraid of this ? Judd Apatow could have produced a more thoughtful movie.

Student explanation why she doesn't want to go camping this summer: "There's too much Outside at camp." #teachingthebabygeeks

I posted this It was not insider trading. Facebook just forgot to monitor their privacy settings while meeting with investors on Facebook this morning. It was gone this afternoon when I looked at Facebook. Guess Big Blue didn't think it was funny?

In the Texas Capitol, on the top floor, only seven spaces remain for gubernatorial portraits. When those spaces are gone, the prophets tell us, Texas will explode into flames as hot molten death rains down from above. This is why they keep electing Rick Perry.

Here's my problem with the Newsweek cover: It throws us back three decades in a moment where you have to dance really fast just to keep up with the lingo regarding this particular civil rights issue. When I first came out as a straight person who was vocal in support of gay rights, we didn't have the "straight ally" terminology to help people understand what we were. I was at college, and when I came home for holidays and called people on their homophobia, I got a lot of "Lookit, boy turned gay in the big city." I shrugged and blew it off, but it was unhelpful to the battle. I get that this ("lookit, preznit turned gay") is not the message the Newsweek writers and editors thought they were sending, but it's sure's hell the message I received. http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/ht_newsweek_cover_barack_obama_jt_120513_wg.jpg

It's been a long, slow, sad decline, but as of May, 2012, at least we know: the newsweeklies won't be returning to respectability. Ever.

I was just reading a passage in an Atlas of World History about pottery during the rise of agriculture, only I read the word as "poetry." So this is what I read: "Poetry became common in early farming settlements where it was needed for storage and cooking. Poetry led to other technological breakthroughs...The wheel too was first used as an aid to making poetry." #PrettySureThey'reDosingEnglishMajorsInOurSleepNow

In class today... E---: Hey, I'm so proud of M----- [another student]. She got a substitute teacher fired because M----- was talking about her support for marriage equality and the sub said "You're going to Hell for believing that," and M----- said "I don't believe in Hell. I'm an atheist, and walked out and went and talked to the principals. A---: Are you sure she was fired? E---: Yes, I was up at school at 5:00 and I heard the alarms. A---: You idiot! They don't blow the fire alarms every time they fire somebody. #teachingthebabygeeks

The Top Eight Ways to be Traditionally Married According to the Bible.

My sister has the World's Worst Handwriting. She wrote me a check; this is some of the handwriting. Just to see, I deposited it into an ATM. The machine read it perfectly. See, this is weird. I remember, growing up as a child of the seventies, reading that a computer would NEVER be able to read human handwriting or understand speech. Four decades on, they can do both. So think about that, as you bitch about not having your fricking jetpack. More importantly, think about it when you make fun of Singularity geeks. Yeah, our future won't be as they predict. But it won't be as you predict, either.

So, the picture didn't turn out great, but the white paper taped to the door reads, "NOT AN EXIT." I think it's a paradox.

Confusion arising from phone running under Android 2.3 and tablet running Ice Cream Sandwich #FirstWorldProblems -- Barry Cochran (@BarryCochran)

It was raining all day today. One would think the beagles would have moved their houses closer to our house, not farther away. #austinthebeagle #clydethebeagle

In less than five minutes, a president a) re-energizes his base, b) boxes his challenger into his most uncomfortable corner, and c) (not incidentally) Does the Right Thing. All in all, a successful day, I'd say.

Word on the D.C. street is that Obama is well into that annoying first flush of straight allydom we all went through: dropping ecstasy with "his gays," buying his daughters rainbow shirts to wear to the Pride festival, and bragging about how he's the only straight guy at the gay bar for the girls to hit on.

"I made history." Yes, you did, Adair. You and some other guy, but you beat him by a couple of weeks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vryCIuU3LxM

2012 is shaping up like the 2004 election in Star Trek's "Mirror, Mirror" episode. Willard Romney is evil John Kerry, and Obama is a mirror of W. It's going to be a Culture War again, but this time is likely to go the opposite way.

For Willard Romney, the race just got a lot narrower. He's running as a evangelical Christian social conservative, now, all the way to November, and no matter how distasteful that may be to him, deep in his soul. And something tells me it is quite distasteful. Maybe it's the constipated expression he always wears. He always looks as if he detests and despises his constituency, even while addressing them. But no matter! Say goodbye, Willard, goodbye to Salt Lake. And sing it, sing it loud, sing "Wonderful Grace of Jesus" or maybe "The Church In The Wildwood," because you're a fundamentalist Southern Baptist, now, baby. You buy the ticket, you take the ride.

They've come for my young adulthood (MCA), and they've come for my childhood (Maurice Sendak). I can only assume they're coming for my teenage years next, so David Byrne please please please be careful when you cross streets.

Biden has evolved. Now his boss needs to finish evolving. http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/05/06/478786/biden-marriage/

Good times, for a particular demographic. It was all so fking simple, back then. Originally shared by Dennis Bullard Memories..

And with all the work the National Organization for Marriage has done to pit the blacks against the gays! Way to stay on message, idiot. http://yesweeklyblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/racialized-remark-about-marriage.html

It's amazing how many fewer things you own that have sentimental value or which you "might need someday" when you start thinking about dragging everything across half a continent.

People on Facebook take my posts way too seriously. You guys over here know I'm usually half-joking, right?

Here's my word cloud. I talk about me, you, people, Google, and beagles. My FB word cloud was far less interesting, so even I'm less interesting on Facebook. #TheRippleEffect

Can't get me out of this state fast enough. http://boingboing.net/2012/05/03/texas-politicians-internet-a.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+boingboing/iBag+(Boing+Boing)&utm_content=Google+Reader

Originally shared by Jaana Nyström Google's little helpers From the beginning of the Google+, all the way in the mists of last June, it has been clear to the community that here we have something very special. The platform is perhaps not the most straightforward to use, and needs more learning and 'how-to's than some others. However, the gain is on another level too, for those who take the time to immerse themselves in Google+. Help has always been on hand. I remember being one of the few non-techies around in June but that wasn't a problem: There was always someone who knew the answers and was willing to lend a helping hand if I got stuck. The names from the early adopter era that spring to mind are Robert Scoble, Tom Anderson, Mike Elgan, Chris Brogan. Mohamed Mansour Alida Brandenburg Christina Trapolino and Natalie Villalobos. Then came Ahmed Zeeshan with his guides and Johnathan Chung with his advice and Sociolog+. Denis Labelle has been very consistent in produc...

Mitt Romney has written off Latinos and Blacks. He's written off gays. Mitt Romney has written off the left and the moderates. He's written off the poor. Mitt Romney is slowly admitting that he will have to write off the religious right. He's written off dog-lovers. He's written off Texas, inexplicably. Mitt Romney thinks running for president is like filling out a 1040!

The U.S. Government tried to cover up the fact that Coldplay covered "Fight For Your Right to Party" last night but Wikileaks released the video. Great. Now we're under martial law because of fears of civil unrest.

OK. If Creationism is a better story, I'll gladly teach in in the English classroom. In fact, we already do, along with Odysseus, the Kauravas and the Pandavas, and the other mythologies. But I'll happily teach it more if it will keep it out of the science classroom. http://chronicle.com/blogs/percolator/is-evolution-a-lousy-story/29158

I have had two half-hour sneezing fits today. Clearly, the Texas Panhandle is as eager to get rid of me as I am to leave it.

Re: collegiate education. The model of tenured profs having most of their work done by grad students no longer works. The "consumer model" of running colleges and universities like businesses NEVER worked. "Online education" works even worse than the previous two models. I'd say we needed a "third way" except for two things: 1) I've already listed three ways that didn't work, and 2) "Third Way" usually means splitting the difference between the first two ways and coming up thereby with an Even Worse Way. Somehow, we need to keep the brick-and-mortar institutions but find a way to teach 21st-century kids. Who founded Starfleet Academy? We need that guy.

Zombie Geoffrey Chaucer and Zombie Martin Luther are clawing their way out of their graves as we speak. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/nyregion/10indulgence.html?_r=3&ref=us

Please just tell me Digital Domain isn't working on a hologram already. #toosoon #willbetoosoonforever

This is my wife, Montana Hisel Cochran. via Book Riot.

"Why does that beagle get to sit on the furniture?" #clydethebeagle

I'm so directionally-challenged I got lost in Google Street View.