Monkey Business

The fancy-pants Georgia Tech athletic centre is equipped with a rock-climbing wall. Last week my friend invited me to an intro to rock climbing session for GT women. For three bucks you get climbing lessons followed by snacks, so I was in. I made it up about half way before I started to get too tired, and spent the rest of the time trying to launch myself onto the bouldering wall, where the idea is to move sideways rather than vertically. The hardest part is to remember to lift with your legs, since your inclination is to climb with your arms, which is a) difficult for women, and b) difficult for non-monkeys. I enjoyed it, but clutching crevices in the wall was hard on my nails, so I may stick with aviation for my vertical thrills.

Booze Studies

Yesterday I went to a reception hosted by the publisher of our textbooks. I greatly enjoyed the snacks, cocktails and the free books that I can sell on the internet. While enjoying my sidecar, I came up with the brilliant idea of a course in technical communication based around alcohol - it could include everything from home brew instructions to cocktail etiquette. I ran it by a colleague who said it would be fine as long as I don't mind having 100 students trying to get into my class. No, I don't mind - I understand that booze can make a girl popular.

More great moments in rhetoric

A couple of gems from student papers:

Gem #1
In reference to the movie Contact, where Jodie Foster's character (Arroway) receives a message from aliens and then travels across the galaxy to meet them:

"...despite her being an atheist, Arroway is the only one to actually make contact with superhuman species in any way."

I am curious about this kid's understanding of theology.

Gem #2
I call this one "our troubled youth":

"In the movie poster for Cloverfield the pose (sic) is very basic and serene. The main focal point of the poster is the Statue of Liberty in flames with its head torn off."

Nothing says "serenity" like a mutilated Statue of Liberty. One wonders about what it would take to make this guy anxious.

Synonymns R Us

I have been grading my students' papers, and one of my favourite sentences thus far explains how the poster for the movie Alien uses fluorescent green to show "the out-of-this-world qualities of extra-terrestrial life." Yes, indeed.

eBlame

I've been using eHarmony for a few months, and I've met a few nice people. The system is by no means perfect, but the process does allow one to filter out most of the ne'er do wells. One of the questions that you answer when you're filling out your profile is "What are you grateful for?" This seems a good question to ask to determine a person's values. One guy listed the following:

1. Knowing that my partner will always forgive me.
2. Knowing that my spouse is usually to blame.

I guess I can't fault him for honesty. I am curious about how he distinguishes "partner" from "spouse" - does he mean that he's married to someone who is blameworthy, and he's grateful to have a mistress who never holds him accountable for his actions? Sounds like he has his hands full already, so I'm not sure what he's doing on eHarmony. I don't think I'll be sending him my "Must Haves and Can't Stands", since my list of "Can't Stands" includes "Married, has a mistress and shuns responsibility".

Purple Boots

My students are in the midst of a project where they will do an analysis of a film poster, then create their own poster for the same movie, but emphasizing a different theme. I had a look at their poster drafts today, and one in particular caught my eye. It features, among other things, a female character wearing a pink dress and purple boots. I commented to the poster's creator that I appreciated his fashion choices. He replied "the purple boots are in honor of you." See, on the first day of class I had worn my purple boots, along with jeans, a purple and gold shirt, my lime green ultra-suede jacket and big hair -- I feel that it's only fair to let my students know who they are dealing with from day one. Anyway, it seems that I made an impression.

I wonder if there are other references to me embedded in students' work. It's like being in The Da Vinci Code.

The Imagination of Disaster

For the past week I have been living as a nomad. On Martin Luther King Day, there was snow on the ground in Atlanta, so I thought it would be nice to take Mollie for a long winter's walk. We returned to find that my Atlanta had become Atlantis - the pipes in an upstairs unit had frozen and burst and a cascade of water was flooding my apartment. Fortunately, nothing valuable was lying on the floor, and I came home in time to sound the alarm, but the walls in my room had to be torn out, the floor is slated for demolition, and the apartment is now home to a dozen dehumidifying machines. The dehumidifiers create an wind-tunnel effect, so as I was packing my bags I had to keep chasing scarves and papers and other airborne items that got caught in the updrafts. I have been living in a succession of hotels and friends' apartments, and my landlord has made the peculiar offer of a house in the suburbs where I can live until the new floor is put in. Mollie is coping with this well, but I'm starting to feel a bit mental.

At the moment I am at my friend's apartment working on my lecture for tomorrow's class. The readings for this week include Susan Sontag's essay on science fiction film entitled "The Imagination of Disaster." I feel that I am becoming an expert in this field of inquiry.