Best writing response ever? - Bestiality reading.

I open every session of my sex class at the art school with an open-ended question to which students respond in writing with reference to the readings, both as a means of attendance and as a means of getting their brains working in the morning, and a bit as a means of checking up to see if they'd been doing any of the reading.

One of the kids is this (shrimpy) (white) (Jewish heritage?) kid who looks vaguely hispanic, and who doesn't contribute to class discussion very often, but when he does so, does so by fixating on interesting details and discussing them intelligently and with authority in a super gay voice.

In the response to the bestiality reading, he wrote perhaps the best response I've ever seen:

I was most surprised by [Dutch naturalist Midas] Dekker['s essay from "Dearest Pet: On Bestiality"]... First of all the word "blowjob" really threw me off when refrencing [sic] a cow.

. . .

AWESOME.

Post-Super Tuesday reactions of a college student:

One of my freshman writing students at my university grew up in the south as the child of at least one African immigrant (his dad is from Anglophone West Africa).

A few weeks ago when the classroom DVD player wasn't working, he had his laptop with him and hooked it up into the A/V machine so that we could play the DVD, and his laptop had a big "BERNIE 2016" sticker on the top of it.

After our most recent writing group meeting, the day after Super Tuesday, I closed the session and remarked that everyone seemed tired, and that I hoped it was because they had all been up late watching election results the previous night.

Most said actually no, but this kid said that he didn't watch per se, but had a newsfeed open as he worked late, and then he began talking about the Republican electorate of the Mountain West states and whether Sanders would do well in Colorado.

He also said Sanders just wasn't making enough connections with the black electorate.

He's very lab science-oriented at this point in time, and I found his interest both authentic and refreshing...

It's interesting, too, that my 2 most visibly political students are both pro-Bernie and both children of African immigrants to the South.

I wonder what that means, or if it's just a coincidence.

Unionizing reactions (3 of 3): Motivations.

In trying to up the ante with people we've talked to previously but haven't signed cards or aren't willing to go and reach out to other people, the organizer recommended sitting down with them again and asking them bluntly, "How much do you want a union?", as a way to motivate them and get them to step up more often.

Unionizing reactions (2 of 3): Englishperson.

When I caught her after class, a(n Asian heritage) (English) person said she's from England and doesn't like unions much since they "go on strike all the time," though she'd follow the majority with what everyone wanted.

I found that reaction very odd...  If it's justified, why care?

Sometimes I think people are very vulnerable to associations instilled by the outside culture, and find ways to justify pre-programmed dislikes.

I wasn't prepped for that reaction at all, but stated that "we're the union" and so make decisions about what happens, and she was like, "But I wouldn't be very involved."

I then gently raised the issue of signing an election card (declined!) and managed to say something about keeping in touch as everything developed, which I'm sure she'd be aware of as more people came on board.

She honestly didn't seem like she cared, or had the time.

What an odd bird.

I really don't get it, don't people understand I'm volunteering my time, and so would give me at least a hearing or some basic respect as I reach out to them?

Unionizing reactions (1 of 3): Spaz case.

Going around talking to colleagues about unionization is very interesting.

One (fatter) (bearded) (white) (hipster) guy kind of spazzed, and told me that he felt "hijacked".

He then said that he's from a union family and is supportive, but there should have been a better way I went about it, like emailing him to sit down and talk.

I apologized profusely and asked him if I had done something wrong, since I wanted to be as effective in outreach as possible...

I also said I was being paid, and was just volunteering time among my 3 other jobs, so I hoped that he could give me some leeway if I did something off, since my mind was probably elsewhere.

He really couldn't articulate anything, and later the union organizer said that there's reactions like that, when someone's colleague shows up to speak with them, so not to worry about it.

Library shelving job trivia: Books for my diss.

Interestingly, in the short time picking books and shelving for my job at the library, I've come across 2 books on shelf that I've read for my dissertation, as I was shelving right by them.

One was the actual book I had checked out, and one was a later reprint of a book I'd found scanned on GoogleBooks and read from a pdf file that I had downloaded there.

For like two seconds I thought that that both coincidences were freaky, but then I remembered that I choose "pick lists" for subject areas that I'm interested in, and so that ups the chances that I'll be in areas where I'll come across books for my diss.

Library shelving job find:

A new "pop" book on monasticism-for-nondenominational-Christians that had come out like a year ago, and was like 100 units away from where it should be.

I had heard about the book when it came out, but it must have been a recent misshelving, since it didn't kick up as lost when the circ folks went to scan it in.